Memory: Real & Imagined, Erased & Rewritten, Implanted & Weaponized (PAMLA)
San Francisco, CA
Organization: PAMLA
Event: PAMLA
Whether we have total recall or spotless minds, whether we exist in the sunken place or the ministry of truth, whether we revise history or scrub websites or weaponize nostalgia or reprogram the unsuspecting, the remembrance of things past in the corners of our minds generates unforgettable texts.
This panel seeks explorations of remembering and forgetting as unnatural, imposed, deployed, weaponized, manipulated experiences that serve an agenda or produce intended effects (in the person remembering or forgetting, or in society, or for those who can control our memories and ability to accurately recall events).
The creation or imposition of false memories is as important as the erasure or absence of real memories, whether what is lost is the ability to testify accurately, to analyze political structures, to recognize abuse, or to negotiate one’s personal relationships.
Papers from a wide variety of critical frameworks welcome. Chemical and surgical modifications of memory, hypnosis, gaslighting, altered and erased records (whether productive of palimpsests or not), the misrepresentation of history as rhetorical tool or propaganda, natural memory loss, false recollection, and other gaps in knowledge are all welcome topics.
Kate Watt
