A Few Thoughts on Memory and Identity
In Rewriting the Soul, Ian Hacking states that “[e]ach of us becomes a new person as we redescribe the past” (68). In what sense is this true? And is this also true of a group or collective, such as a country?
We cannot literally undo what happened in the past by redescribing certain events in a more flattering or interesting way. However, we can acquire a different conscious identity by redescribing what happened in the past. We can view ourselves differently through the narratives that we construct around earlier acts, feelings, and engagements. Redescription need not be something we do or try to do. We may simply find ourselves believing that a certain redescription is appropriate or correct. How might this happen? The obvious candidates here are desires, emotions, and memory lapses (a topic that Hacking addresses in Rewriting the Soul). A person may not only convince herself of her new identity, she may convince others of it as well. Her identity may acquire a kind of social reality or independence in this way.
Can we say something similar about the way that a country describes its past? To be sure, a country does not express itself through a single voice. However, the story of a country that emerges through books and other sources involves a certain amount of description and redescription. As in the case of the individual, this does not show that a redecription can literally alter the past. But a redescription can shape the conscious identity of a country or its people. And as in the case of the individual (again), a country may succeed in convincing others that this story or identity is correct.
A question for our viewers: Can you recommend any works of fiction that deal with these themes?
Work Cited: Hacking, Ian. Rewriting the Soul: Multiple Personality and the Sciences of Memory. Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1995.
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