Organizer: Yu Min C Rodan
Contact the Seminar OrganizersTitle: "Future Memory: Intersections of Memory, Technology, and Narrative in Literature and Film"
This seminar explores the concept of "future memory" across literature and film. We will examine the impact of memory, trauma, and technology on human cognition. We will analyze texts that challenge traditional notions of temporality and consciousness. We will question how memories shape identity, and how technological advancements might alter our understanding of lived experience.
The seminar will draw on theoretical frameworks from trauma studies, including the works of Cathy Caruth and Marianne Hirsch on postmemory. We will also study Jean Baudrillard's concepts of simulation and hyperreality, and Donna Haraway's cyborg theory to analyze the blurred boundaries between human and machine memory.
Our investigation aims to uncover how narratives have grappled with the malleability of memory throughout history and how they envision the future of human cognition and identity in the face of rapid technological change. Marcel Proust's "In Search of Lost Time" examines involuntary memory; Jorge Luis Borges' "Funes the Memorious" and Virginia Woolf's "Mrs. Dalloway" employs stream of consciousness to depict the fluidity of memory and time.
Furthermore, contemporary works that explore the manipulation control and reimagining of memory and identity in speculative futures include Yevgeny Zamyatin's "We" which examines the erasure of individuality in a totalitarian state. Margaret Atwood's "The Handmaid's Tale" and MaddAddam trilogy delve into the suppression of personal history and the engineering of human nature. Philip K. Dick's "We Can Remember It for You Wholesale" and William Gibson's "Neuromancer" focus on the technological implantation or alteration of memories.
Cinematic representations, such as "Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind" and "Inception," which further probe the malleability of memory and its connection to consciousness, are also of interest. We encourage submissions that raise profound questions about the nature of identity, the reliability of memory, and the ethical implications of memory manipulation in increasingly technologically advanced societies. This panel invites a rich tapestry of perspectives on the concept of "future memory."
This seminar explores the concept of "future memory" across literature and film. We will examine the impact of memory, trauma, and technology on human cognition. We will analyze texts that challenge traditional notions of temporality and consciousness. We will question how memories shape identity, and how technological advancements might alter our understanding of lived experience.
The seminar will draw on theoretical frameworks from trauma studies, including the works of Cathy Caruth and Marianne Hirsch on postmemory. We will also study Jean Baudrillard's concepts of simulation and hyperreality, and Donna Haraway's cyborg theory to analyze the blurred boundaries between human and machine memory.
Our investigation aims to uncover how narratives have grappled with the malleability of memory throughout history and how they envision the future of human cognition and identity in the face of rapid technological change. Marcel Proust's "In Search of Lost Time" examines involuntary memory; Jorge Luis Borges' "Funes the Memorious" and Virginia Woolf's "Mrs. Dalloway" employs stream of consciousness to depict the fluidity of memory and time.
Furthermore, contemporary works that explore the manipulation control and reimagining of memory and identity in speculative futures include Yevgeny Zamyatin's "We" which examines the erasure of individuality in a totalitarian state. Margaret Atwood's "The Handmaid's Tale" and MaddAddam trilogy delve into the suppression of personal history and the engineering of human nature. Philip K. Dick's "We Can Remember It for You Wholesale" and William Gibson's "Neuromancer" focus on the technological implantation or alteration of memories.
Cinematic representations, such as "Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind" and "Inception," which further probe the malleability of memory and its connection to consciousness, are also of interest. We encourage submissions that raise profound questions about the nature of identity, the reliability of memory, and the ethical implications of memory manipulation in increasingly technologically advanced societies. This panel invites a rich tapestry of perspectives on the concept of "future memory."