The Promise Of Memory

Download or read book The Promise of Memory written by Lorna Martens and published by Harvard University Press. This book was released on 2011-10-10 with total page 285 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Readers once believed in Proust’s madeleine and in Wordsworth’s recollections of his boyhood—but that was before literary culture began to defer to Freud’s questioning of adult memories of childhood. In this first sustained look at childhood memories as depicted in literature, Lorna Martens reveals how much we may have lost by turning our attention the other way. Her work opens a new perspective on early recollection—how it works, why it is valuable, and how shifts in our understanding are reflected in both scientific and literary writings. Science plays an important role in The Promise of Memory, which is squarely situated at the intersection of literature and psychology. Psychologists have made important discoveries about when childhood memories most often form, and what form they most often take. These findings resonate throughout the literary works of the three writers who are the focus of Martens’ book. Proust and Rilke, writing in the modernist period before Freudian theory penetrated literary culture, offer original answers to questions such as “Why do writers consider it important to remember childhood? What kinds of things do they remember? What do their memories tell us?” In Walter Benjamin, Martens finds a writer willing to grapple with Freud, and one whose writings on childhood capture that struggle. For all three authors, places and things figure prominently in the workings of memory. Connections between memory and materiality suggest new ways of understanding not just childhood recollection but also the artistic inclination, which draws on a childlike way of seeing: object-focused, imaginative, and emotionally intense.

Download or read book The Promise of Memory written by Matthias Fritsch and published by State University of New York Press. This book was released on 2012-02-01 with total page 265 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Rereading Marx through Walter Benjamin and Jacques Derrida, The Promise of Memory attempts to establish a philosophy of liberation. Matthias Fritsch explores how memories of injustice relate to the promises of justice that democratic societies have inherited from the Enlightenment. Focusing on the Marxist promise for a classless society, since it contains a political promise whose institutionalization led to totalitarian outcomes, Fritsch argues that both memories and promises, if taken by themselves, are one-sided and potentially justify violence if they do not reflect on the implicit relation between them. He examines Benjamin's reinterpretation of Marxism after the disappointment of the Russian and German revolutions and Derrida's "messianic" inheritance of Marx after the breakdown of the Soviet Union. The book also contributes to contemporary political philosophy by relating Marxist social goals and German critical theory to debates about deconstructive ethics and politics.

Download or read book The Promise of Memory written by Michael Weeder and published by African Books Collective. This book was released on 2021-04-21 with total page 122 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This selection of poems - covering the years from 1980 to the present day - expresses the poets personal attempts at making sense of the everyday, ordinary difficulties, and the small victories of life. The offering emphasises, sometimes in an exploratory suggestiveness, how differences should not be divisive and that they form part of the range of ways in which we belong to - and are of - each other.

Download or read book The Promise written by Silvina Ocampo and published by City Lights Books. This book was released on 2019-10-22 with total page 118 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Kirkus Reviews calls The Promise one of the Best Books of Fiction, and of Literature in Translation, of the year! * Voted one of the Big Fall Books from Indies by Publishers Weekly & LitHub's Most Anticipated Books of 2019 "The world is ready for her blend of insane Angela Carter with the originality of Clarice Lispector."—Mariana Enriquez, LitHub "Both her debut story collection, Forgotten Journey, and her only novel, The Promise, are strikingly 20th-century texts, written in a high-modernist mode rarely found in contemporary fiction."—Lily Meyer, NPR A dying woman's attempt to recount the story of her life reveals the fragility of memory and the illusion of identity. "Of all the words that could define her, the most accurate is, I think, ingenious."—Jorge Luis Borges "I don't know of another writer who better captures the magic inside everyday rituals, the forbidden or hidden face that our mirrors don't show us."—Italo Calvino "Few writers have an eye for the small horrors of everyday life; fewer still see the everyday marvelous. Other than Silvina Ocampo, I cannot think of a single writer who, at any time in any language, has chronicled both with such wise and elegant humor."—Alberto Manguel "Art is the cure for death. A seminal work by an underread master. Required for all students of the human condition."—Starred Review, Kirkus Reviews "This haunting and vital final work from Ocampo, her only novel, is about a woman's life flashing before her eyes when she's stranded in the ocean. . . . the book’s true power is its depiction of the strength of the mind and the necessity of storytelling, which for the narrator is literally staving off death. Ocampo’s portrait of one woman’s interior life is forceful and full of hope."—Gabe Habash, Starred Review, Publishers Weekly "Ocampo is beyond great—she is necessary."—Hernan Diaz, author of In the Distance "I don't know of another writer who better captures the magic inside everyday rituals, the forbidden or hidden face that our mirrors don't show us."—Italo Calvino "These two newly translated books could make her a rediscovery on par with Clarice Lispector. . . . there has never been another voice like hers."—John Freeman, Executive Editor, LitHub "Like William Blake, Ocampo's first voice was that of a visual artist; in her writing she retains the will to unveil immaterial so that we might at least look at it if not touch it."—Helen Oyeyemi, author of Gingerbread A woman traveling on a transatlantic ship has fallen overboard. Adrift at sea, she makes a promise to Saint Rita, "arbiter of the impossible," that if she survives, she will write her life story. As she drifts, she wonders what she might include in the story of her life—a repertoire of miracles, threats, and people parade tumultuously through her mind. Little by little, her imagination begins to commandeer her memories, escaping the strictures of realism. Translated into English for the very first time, The Promise showcases Silvina Ocampo at her most feminist, idiosyncratic and subversive. Ocampo worked quietly to perfect this novella over the course of twenty-five years, nearly up until the time of her death in 1993.

Download or read book If Memory Serves written by Christopher Castiglia and published by U of Minnesota Press. This book was released on 2011-11-22 with total page 271 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: How gay memory suppressed after AIDS returns in visions of sexual identity and social idealism

Download or read book The Promise written by Nicola Davies and published by Candlewick Press. This book was released on 2021-06-15 with total page 48 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: “This tale is a sturdy one that is made even more emphatic by Davies’s terse writing style. The text is heightened in every way by Carlin’s outstanding mixed-media artwork.” — Booklist (starred review) On a mean street in a mean, broken city, a young girl tries to snatch an old woman’s bag. But the frail old woman says the thief can’t have it without giving something in return: the promise. It is the beginning of a journey that will change the girl’s life — and a chance to change the world, for good.

Download or read book Promise Me Tomorrow written by Lori Wick and published by Harvest House Publishers. This book was released on 2006-01-01 with total page 422 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Katherine Taggert—nicknamed "Rusty" for her curly red hair—shines like a ray of sunshine at her aunt and uncle's orphanage. Unaccustomed to traveling alone in the pioneer West, Rusty is accompanied on her first orphanage placement trip by the kind but reserved widower Chase McCandles. When Chase offers Rusty a position in his stately home as a companion for his young son, Quintin, Rusty accepts. But when she realized how little time Chase spends with Quintin, Rusty's heart is torn. How can she convince Chase that his son desperately needs a father? And can Chase learn to trust God to help him demonstrate his love and affection for Quintin—and for Rusty? A heartwarming story of love, trust, and family.