Aging Studies in Europe (Publication Series of the Center for Inter-American Studies / University of Graz): Series Editors: Heike Hartung, Ulla Kriebernegg, Roberta Maierhofer. Publisher: Transcript, Bielefeld, Germany Call for Papers for Volume 9: THE TRACE OF AGE AND MEMORY IN CONTEMPORARY NARRATIVE Editors: Marta Cerezo and Nieves Pascual This volume aims at discussing the dialectic between Ricoeur’s concepts of the trace and narrative identity in texts of the 20th and 21st century, in which experience is recounted through a memory process. This articulation rests upon a disruption of conceptualizing stages of life as “limited and static categories of understanding” (Cole 1992: xviii); that is, upon challenging what it means to grow old and experience time. Based on the assumption that narratives determine our understanding of human existence, this volume seeks contributions on how individuals at different stages of their lives experience and interpret the passing of time by making present through mnemonic mechanisms what is past and initially absent. Positioned within the discipline of Age/Aging Studies, this volume invites analyses of the reconceptualization of the concepts of living, aging, continuity and change in accordance with Ricoeur’s statement that “the subject then appears both as a reader and the writer of its own life” (1990: 246). Ricoeur’s philosophical views on subjectivity are based on his idea of the dynamic circularity between life and narrative. To the author, “as stories emerge, the implied subject also emerges” (1991: 30) and narrative identity is constituted. Narrative identity is constructed on the model of narrative plot with an internal dialectic of concordance and discordance, as it is also involved in the emplotment of action. This concordance-discordance dialectic implies that narrative identity, which he identifies with ipse or self-sameness, is dynamic, unstable, seamless, and “can include change, mutability, within the cohesion of one lifetime” (1990: 246). The concept of the trace is essential in the construction of Ricoeur’s narrative identity in novels in which a return to the past is central. As he develops in Time and Narrative III, traces turn into visible and permanent signs, in the here and now of a past action which, however, does not show. Ricoeur points out that the permanence of the traces, with a more resistant and lasting nature than the transitory activity of men, shows the mark of the absence of their past actions. In Memory, History, and Forgetting (2000), Ricoeur insists on the link of the trace to the past and oblivion, arguing that the destruction of traces results in an irreversible and definitive forgetfulness. The author argues that the reference to the past through traces is a paradox that is lodged within the origin of memory. The paradox would not exist if we just took into consideration the materiality of presence of the trace. Taking into account all the above, we call for contributions in which memory traces are narrated and lead to a reflection of the overlapping of narrative and the temporal configuration of the narrated self. Among other topics, contributions to the following are welcome: Memory and the dialectic between truth and fiction Textuality of memory Individual and collective memory Reluctant anamnesis and the discourse of trauma Split I: the narrating I and the subject of narration Distortive temporalities Dementia, Alzheimer, short-term memory loss Remembering and forgetting Narrative healing REFERENCES: COLE, Thomas R. (1992) The Journey of Life: A Cultural History of Aging in America. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. RICOEUR, Paul 1988 (1990). Time and Narrative. Volume 3. The University of Chicago Press: Chicago and London (1991). “Life in Quest of Narrative”. On Paul Ricoeur. Narrative and Interpretation. David Wood (ed.). Routledge: London. (2004). Memory, History, Forgetting. Chicago: Chicago University Press. Information on last published volumes: transcript-verlag.de/ts2212/ts2212.php Manuscripts submitted should be unpublished and original. They should conform to citation methods of the MLA Handbook, 7th edition. Abstracts submission: Before March 1st (6000 signs) Acceptance notice: Before April 1st Article submission: Before July 1st (36000 signs) Peer review process: Three months Notification of acceptance, revision or rejection: Before October 15th Abstracts should be sent to: Marta Cerezo ([email protected]) and Nieves Pascual ([email protected])
Posted on: Fri, 15 Nov 2013 03:17:23 +0000
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