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Oxford University Press, USA

Beyond the Archive: Memory, Narrative, and the Autobiographical Process

Beyond the Archive: Memory, Narrative, and the Autobiographical Process

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Our longstanding view of memory and remembering is in the midst of a profound transformation. This transformation does not only affect our concept of memory or a particular idea of how we remember and forget; it is a wider cultural process. In order to understand it, one must step back and
consider what is meant when we say memory. Brockmeier's far-ranging studies offer such a perspective, synthesizing understandings of remembering from the neurosciences, humanities, social studies, and in key works of autobiographical literature and life-writing. His conclusions force us to radically
rethink our very notion of memory as an archive of the past, one that suggests the natural existence of a distinctive human capacity (or a set of neuronal systems) enabling us to encode, store, and recall past experiences.

Now, propelled by new scientific insights and digital technologies, a new picture is emerging. It shows that there are many cultural forms of remembering and forgetting, embedded in a broad spectrum of human activities and artifacts. This picture is more complex than any notion of memory as storage
of the past would allow. Indeed it comes with a number of alternatives to the archival memory, one of which Brockmeier describes as the narrative approach. The narrative approach not only permits us to explore the storied weave of our most personal form of remembering--that is, the
autobiographical--it also sheds new light on the interrelations among memory, self, and culture.


Author: Jens Brockmeier
Publisher: Oxford University Press, USA
Published: 09/02/2015
Pages: 424
Binding Type: Hardcover
Weight: 1.59lbs
Size: 9.30h x 6.10w x 1.40d
ISBN: 9780199861569

About the Author

Jens Brockmeier is a professor at The American University of Paris. With a background in psychology, philosophy, and language studies, his interests are in issues of human identity, mind, and language, which he has examined in a variety of cultural contexts and under conditions of health and
illness.

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