Memory, History, ForgettingWhy do major historical events such as the Holocaust occupy the forefront of the collective consciousness, while profound moments such as the Armenian genocide, the McCarthy era, and France's role in North Africa stand distantly behind? Is it possible that history "overly remembers" some events at the expense of others? A landmark work in philosophy, Paul Ricoeur's Memory, History, Forgetting examines this reciprocal relationship between remembering and forgetting, showing how it affects both the perception of historical experience and the production of historical narrative. Memory, History, Forgetting, like its title, is divided into three major sections. Ricoeur first takes a phenomenological approach to memory and mnemonical devices. The underlying question here is how a memory of present can be of something absent, the past. The second section addresses recent work by historians by reopening the question of the nature and truth of historical knowledge. Ricoeur explores whether historians, who can write a history of memory, can truly break with all dependence on memory, including memories that resist representation. The third and final section is a profound meditation on the necessity of forgetting as a condition for the possibility of remembering, and whether there can be something like happy forgetting in parallel to happy memory. Throughout the book there are careful and close readings of the texts of Aristotle and Plato, of Descartes and Kant, and of Halbwachs and Pierre Nora. A momentous achievement in the career of one of the most significant philosophers of our age, Memory, History, Forgetting provides the crucial link between Ricoeur's Time and Narrative and Oneself as Another and his recent reflections on ethics and the problems of responsibility and representation. “His success in revealing the internal relations between recalling and forgetting, and how this dynamic becomes problematic in light of events once present but now past, will inspire academic dialogue and response but also holds great appeal to educated general readers in search of both method for and insight from considering the ethical ramifications of modern events. . . . It is indeed a master work, not only in Ricoeur’s own vita but also in contemporary European philosophy.”—Library Journal “Ricoeur writes the best kind of philosophy—critical, economical, and clear.”— New York Times Book Review |
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action analysis Annales school aporia archives Aristotle belonging Bergson called Carlo Ginzburg Certeau chapter collective memory concept concerning confrontation consciousness constitutes critical critique culture Da-sein death dialectic discussion distinction epistemology essay event experience expression fact fiction forgetting forgiveness framework Hannah Arendt Heidegger hermeneutics historian historical knowledge historiographical operation human Husserl ibid idea inasmuch interpretation Jacques Le Goff l'histoire limits Louis Marin mark Matter and Memory melancholia mentalities Michel de Certeau microhistory mnemonic modernity modes moral mourning namely narrative Norbert Elias notion object one’s ontological Paris past phase phenomena phenomenology of memory phenomenon philosophy Pierre Nora plane political present presupposition problem problematic proposed question recollection reference reflection regard relation remains remember representation rhetoric scale sciences sense singular social space speak structure temporal testimony Theaetetus theme thesis things tion trace trans Translated truth University Press word writing