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.
Industry Reviews
"For a cultural historian, Beyond the Archive proves to be an inspirational endeavor... [It] offers a rich analysis of the various traditions and ways that memory has been understood." -- Maarit Leskelä-Kärki, Project Muse
"There is no better guide to 'the dilemma of memory' across disciplines than Jens Brockmeier. This carefully crafted book, infused with the spirit of Mnemosyne, the goddess of memory, time and language, is at once philosophical, artistic and scientific, bringing together the likes of Marcel Proust, Ansel Kiefer, and Isaac Newton, as well as the most recent neurological research on the human brain. Long after finishing the last page, ideas linger and certain
passages beckon the reader back into this exciting world of a universe with an 'infinite multitude of clocks'. Beyond the Archive is a true gift for anyone interested in this most fundamental question
about the role of memory in human lives." --Molly Andrews, Professor of Political Psychology and Co-director, Centre for Narrative Research, University of East London
"In Beyond the Archive, Jens Brockmeier masterfully evaluates the limits of traditional approaches to the study of memory. He furthers his argument by insightfully probing the ways in which narrative approaches can enhance our understanding of people's efforts to make sense of the past and thereby ground both their individual and collective identity. Covering a daunting range of literature, from the humanities through the social sciences to the
cognitive and neurosciences, Brockmeier's book provides a strong foundation on which to build new approaches to the study of memory." --William Hirst, Malcolm B. Smith Professor of Psychology, New School for Social
Research
"A large-minded re-envisaging of memory built on an unrivalled depth of learning in cognitive neuroscience, history of ideas and narrative studies... A superb interdisciplinary synthesis that reconceptualises autobiographical meaning as acts of remembering and self-interpretation in the context of cultural memory." --Brian Hurwitz, Professor of Medicine and the Arts, Director of the Centre for the Humanities and Health, King's College London
"Beyond the Archive offers a rich analysis of the various traditions and ways that memory has been understood. It attaches to the core of the so-called memory crisis as it aims to look both at the past and the future to find something new, even radically new in the way we could reflect on memory." --Biography: An Interdisciplinary Quarterly
"Brockmeier's book stands out as one of those rare works of scholarship that deserves to be called magisterial. Brockmeier asks big questions--the nature of the self, of memory, of how autobiographical narration works and what it effects--and he demonstrates expertise in an array of literatures from neuroscience to literary fiction. Brockmeier weaves an extraordinary web."
--Narrative Works
