Article published In:
Narrative Inquiry: Online-First Articles

Memory is an interpretive action

ORCID logo | The American University of Paris

In this essay, I aim to shore up the epistemological foundations of memory studies so that it can more productively fulfill its promise to understand the dynamics of shared meaning-making. I argue for theoretical and, hence, methodological, advancement toward a more precise vocabulary for describing the movement of meaning over time and space and between persons as they engage with resources and each other in order to fix and revise shared interpretations. Drawing on the conceptual vocabulary of narrative, I describe some of the central tenets of this “back to the phenomenon” approach to social memory.

Keywords: narrative, memory, hermeneutics, Critical psychology, collective memory
Article outline
  • Introduction
  • Conceptualizing memory
  • Back to the phenomenon
  • Together-with others
  • Resourcefulness
  • On the ground floor
  • Notes
  • References
Published online: 31 January 2023
DOI logo
https://doi.org/10.1075/ni.22020.sch
References
Assmann, J.
(1995) Collective memory and cultural identity. New German Critique, 651, 125 – 133. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Bamberg, M.
(2004) Form and functions of ‘slut bashing’ in male identity constructions in 15-year-olds. Human Development, 47 (6), 331–353. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Bamberg, M., & Georgakopoulou, A.
(2008) Small stories as a new perspective in narrative and identity analysis. Text & Talk, 28 (3), 377–396. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Berger, P. L. & Luckmann, T.
(1967) The social construction of reality: A treatise in the sociology of knowledge. Anchor Books.Google Scholar
Brockmeier, J.
(2015) Beyond the archive: Memory, narrative, and the autobiographical process. New York: Oxford University Press. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Bruner, J. S.
(1978) The role of dialogue in language acquisition. In A. Sinclair, R. J. Jarvella & W. J. M. Levelt (Eds.) The child’s conception of language (pp. 241–256). Springer-Verlag.Google Scholar
Cohler, B. J.
(1982) Personal narrative and life course. In P. Baltes, & O. G. Brim (Eds.), Life span development and behavior (Vol. 41, pp. 205–241). Academic Press.Google Scholar
Danziger, K.
(2008) Marking the mind: A history of memory. Cambridge University Press. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Draaisma, D.
(2000) Metaphors of memory: A history of ideas about the mind. P. Vincent (Trans.). Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Durkheim, E.
(1912/1995) The elementary forms of religious life. K. E. Fields (Trans.). New York: The Free Press.Google Scholar
Fivush, R. & Nelson, K.
(2006) Parent-child reminiscing locates the self in the past. British Journal of Developmental Psychology, 241, 235–251. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Freeman, M.
(1984) History, narrative, and life-span developmental knowledge. Human Development, 27 (1), 1–19. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
(2010) Hindsight: The promise and peril of looking backward. Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Gedi, N. & Elam, Y.
(1996) Collective memory – What is it? History and Memory, 8(2), 30–50.Google Scholar
Gensburger, S.
(2016) Halbwachs’s studies in collective memory: A founding work for contemporary “memory studies”? Journal of Classical Sociology. 16(4), 396–413. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Georgakopoulou, A.
(2007) Small stories, interaction and identities. Studies in Narrative 8. John Benjamins Publishing Company. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
(2020) La small stories research: Une analyse narrative pour le XXI ͤ siècle essai de cartographie. (Trans. S. Patron). In S. Patron (Ed.) Small stories: Un nouveau paradigme pour les recherches sur le récit (pp. 17–53). Hermann.Google Scholar
Hacking, I.
(1999) The social construction of what? Harvard University Press.Google Scholar
Hajer, M. A.
(1993) Discourse coalitions and the institutionalization of practice: The case of acid rain in Britain. In F. Fischer & J. Forester (Eds.) The argumentative turn in policy analysis and planning (pp. 43–76). Duke University Press. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Halbwachs, M.
(1925/1994) Les cadres sociaux de la mémoire. Paris: Albin Michel.Google Scholar
(1950/1997) La mémoire collective. Albin Michel.Google Scholar
Hammack, P. L.
(2008) Narrative and the cultural psychology of identity. Personality and Social Psychology Review, 12(3), 222–247. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Hegel, G. W. F.
(1807/1977) Phenomenology of spirit. A. V. Miller (trans.). Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Hilberg, R.
(1988) Developments in the historiography of the Holocaust. In A. Cohen, J. Gelber, & C. Wardi (Eds.) Comprehending the Holocaust: Historical and literary research (pp. 21–44). Verlag Peter Lang.Google Scholar
Hirst, W., Coman, A., & Coman, D.
(2014) Putting the social back into human memory. In T. Perfect & D. S. Lindsay (Ed). Sage Handbook of Applied Memory (pp. 273–291). Sage Publications. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Hirst, W. & Manier, D.
(2008) Towards a psychology of collective memory. Memory, 16 (3), 183–200. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Holland, D. Lachicotte, Jr., W., Skinner, D. & Cain, C.
(1998) Identity and agency in cultural worlds. Harvard University Press.Google Scholar
Kahneman, D.
(2011) Thinking fast and slow. Penguin.Google Scholar
Kansteiner, W.
(2002) Finding meaning in memory: A methodological critique of collective memory studies. History and Theory, 41 1, 179 – 197. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Keightley, E. & Pickering, M.
(2012) The mnemonic imagination: Remembering as creative practice. Palgrave Macmillan. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Keightley, E., Pickering, M., & Bisht, P.
(2019) Interscalarity and the memory spectrum. In N. Maurantonio & W. Park (Eds.) Communicating Memory & History (pp. 17–38). Peter Lang.Google Scholar
Klein, K. L.
(2000) On the emergence of memory in historical discourse. Representations, 691, 127–150. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Labov, W., & Waletzky, J.
(1967/1997) Narrative analysis: Oral versions of personal experience. Journal of Narrative & Life History, 7 (1–4), 3–38. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Labov, W.
(1972) Language in the inner city. University of Pennsylvania Press.Google Scholar
Meretoja, H.
(2018) The ethics of storytelling: Narrative hermeneutics, history, and the possible. Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Miller, P. J., Chen, E. C.-H., & Olivarez, M.
(2014) Narrative making and remaking in the early years: Prelude to the personal narrative. In B. Schiff (Ed.), Rereading Personal Narrative and Life Course. New Directions for Child and Adolescent Development, 1451, 15–27. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Mishler, E. G.
(1999) Storylines: Craftartists’ narratives of identity. Harvard University Press.Google Scholar
Moscovici, S.
(2000) Social representations: Explorations in social psychology. G. Duveen (Ed.). PolityGoogle Scholar
Norrick, N.
(2005) The dark side of tellability. Narrative Inquiry, 15(2), 323–343. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Olick, J. K.
(1999) Collective memory: The two cultures. Sociological Theory, 17 1, pp. 333–348. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Olick, J. K., Vinitzky-Seroussi, V. & Levy, D.
(Eds.) (2011) The collective memory reader. Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Rothberg, M.
(2009) Multidirectional memory: Remembering the Holocaust in the age of decolonization. Stanford University Press.Google Scholar
Ryle, G.
(1949/2009) The concept of mind: 60th anniversary edition. London: Routledge.Google Scholar
Schiff, B.
(2017) A new narrative for psychology. Oxford University Press. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Schutz, A. & Luckmann, T.
(1973) The structures of the life-world. R. M. Zaner & H. T. Engelhardt, Jr. (Trans.). Northwestern University Press.Google Scholar
Wertsch, J. V.
(2002) Voices of collective remembering. Cambridge University Press. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Wiley, A. R., Rose, A. J., Burger, L. K., & Miller, P. J.
(1998) Constructing autonomous selves through narrative practices: Comparative study of working-class and middle-class families. Child Development (69) 31, 833–847. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Vygotsky, L. S.
(1930/1978) Mind in society: The development of higher psychological processes. Harvard University Press.Google Scholar
Young, J. E.
(1993) The texture of memory: Holocaust memorials and meaning. Yale University Press.Google Scholar
Zerubavel, E.
(2004) Time maps: Collective memory and the social shapes of the past. The University of Chicago Press.Google Scholar