Narratives and memory

Abstract

Memory, as an account that reveals the traces that historical facts impress on a collective, is dealt with by such group so as to call attention to its spirit, to its identity. It is in that manner that intercultural dialogues that energize the cultures with which they interact develop; through the perception that each culture has of the other and of itself based on such accounts. Memory is therefore used to manage time and to regulate forgetfulness in order to reach an understanding with life.

Cultures mediate between literal and figurative memory in order to conquer the fear that results in amnesia, and the hyper-memory that
impedes forgiveness. Collective action is impossible without indentifying-links, without memory-links, without the feeling of belonging to an story-line where each person finds himself on a symbolic map; and, at the same time, there is no productive dynamic if the elements that comprise identity do not allow themselves to be questioned by that which exists outside its symbolic borders.

A community that generates an evaluative memory can affect its future, i.e., it is a community that can chart a project through the memory function that permits repeated identification, examination, reenactment and reliving of earlier experiences (perlaboration).