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On the 29th June, I had the opportunity to participate in the Connecting Memories 2020 Symposium. It was a really great and truly enriching experience and the speakers presented interesting a diverse research projects around the concept of memory.
The symposium took place online and it was a great opportunity to meet memory researchers from around the world, with an amazing variety of projects and perspectives. I especially enjoyed exchanging ideas and discussing concepts with the participants as it gave me lots of inspiration and new references to follow up on and it also made me question some of the concepts I have been using so far!
The title of my presentation was “Placing Memory in Space: Unlocking the mnemonic potential of spaces in narratives through spatial analysis”.
The topic that I presented was the boiled down perspective which I have adopted in both my undergraduate and graduate research projects. In both projects, I have focused on Kazuo Ishiguro’s novels and in particular, on the interrelation between space and memory in his work.
A particularly striking aspect of the symposium was that space played an important role in most of the projects presented in the symposium, however the interrelations between space and memory were approached through different concepts: lieux de mémoire, cognitive mapping, cartographical narratives etc.
Blurb of my presentation
"In Human geography, space – an abstract delimitation or an arbitrarily delimited geographical entity – becomes place when people engage with and transform this space into a meaningful topography, filled with experience, value and most importantly, memory.
In my research, I focus on written narratives and novels as a subject matter. My methodology is to analyse the narrative function of man-made or natural environments, landscapes, houses or streets and how they are used by the characters to perpetuate, maintain or forget memories. Applying Nora’s concept of lieux de mémoire to written narratives, I analyse how places contain memories and how memory crystallizes in places.
Focusing on Kazuo Ishiguro’s novels reveals that spaces and places have a strong mnemonic function, wherein places and spaces not only serve as containers of memory, but also as sensorial triggers that allow characters to access and reflect on their memories while walking in the street, looking at their garden or travelling through vast, seemingly empty landscapes. Thus, my approach towards researching memory reposes on the relationship between spaces, people and memory."
***Connecting Memories is a collaborative research initiative of the University of Edinburgh***
More information on the events, podcasts and publications of the initiative: https://www.connectingmemories.org/