Memory in the Twenty-First Century Also by Sebastian Groes IAN McEWAN: Contemporary Critical Perspectives (edited) JULIAN BARNES: Contemporary Critical Perspectives (edited) KAZUO ISHIGURO: Critical Visions of the Novels (edited) KAZUO ISHIGURO: Contemporary Critical Perspectives (edited) McLITERATUUR THE MAKING OF LONDON WOMEN’S WRITING AFTER 9/11 (edited) Memory in the Twenty-First Century New Critical Perspectives from the Arts, Humanities, and Sciences Edited by Sebastian Groes Senior Lecturer in English Literature, University of Roehampton, UK Selection, introduction, conclusion and editorial matter © Sebastian Groes 2016 Individual chapters © Contributors 2016 Foreword © N. Katherine Hayles 2016 Softcover reprint of the hardcover 1st edition 2016 978-1-137-52057-9 All rights reserved. No reproduction, copy or transmission of this publication may be made without written permission. No portion of this publication may be reproduced, copied or transmitted save with written permission or in accordance with the provisions of the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988, or under the terms of any licence permitting limited copying issued by the Copyright Licensing Agency, Saffron House, 6–10 Kirby Street, London EC1N 8TS. Any person who does any unauthorized act in relation to this publication may be liable to criminal prosecution and civil claims for damages. The authors have asserted their rights to be identified as the authors of this work in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988. First published 2016 by PALGRAVE MACMILLAN Palgrave Macmillan in the UK is an imprint of Macmillan Publishers Limited, registered in England, company number 785998, of Houndmills, Basingstoke, Hampshire RG21 6XS. Palgrave Macmillan in the US is a division of St Martin’s Press LLC, 175 Fifth Avenue, New York, NY 10010. Palgrave Macmillan is the global academic imprint of the above companies and has companies and representatives throughout the world. Palgrave® and Macmillan® are registered trademarks in the United States, the United Kingdom, Europe and other countries. ISBN 978-1-349-56642-6 ISBN 978-1-137-52058-6 (eBook) DOI 10.1057/9781137520586 This book is printed on paper suitable for recycling and made from fully managed and sustained forest sources. Logging, pulping and manufacturing processes are expected to conform to the environmental regulations of the country of origin. A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library. Memory in the Twenty-First Century: New Critical Perspectives from the Arts, Humanities and Sciences / [edited by] Sebastian Groes. pages cm Includes bibliographical references and index. 1. Memory—Sociological aspects. 2. Memory in literature. 3. Memory in art. 4. Memory (Philosophy) I. Groes, Sebastian, editor. BF378.S65M476 2015 153.1’209051—dc23 2015025957 Typeset by MPS Limited, Chennai, India. Contents List of Figures ix Foreword: From Causality to Correlation by N. Katherine Hayles x Acknowledgements xiv Notes on Contributors xvi Introduction: Memory in the Twenty-First Century 1 Sebastian Groes Part I Metaphors of Memory Introduction to Part I 16 Sebastian Groes 1 Metaphors of Memory: From the Classical World to Modernity 27 Corin Depper 2 Proust, the Madeleine and Memory 38 Barry C. Smith 3 Proust Recalled: A Psychological Revisiting of That Madeleine Memory Moment 42 E. Leigh Gibson 4 The Persistence of Surrealism: Memory, Dreams and the Dead 51 Jeannette Baxter 5 The Brain Observatory and the Imaginary Media of Memory Research 57 Flora Lysen 6 Memory and the Fictional Imagination: Creating Memories 63 Peter Childs 7 Misled by Metaphor 67 Nicholas Carr 8 Calling Gaia: World Brains and Global Memory 70 Stephan Besser Part II Memory in the Digital Age Introduction to Part II 78 Sebastian Groes 9 What’s in a Brain? 89 Will Self v vi Contents 10 Will Self and His Inner Seahorse 97 Hugo J. Spiers 11 Navigational Aids in Neuropsychological Rehabilitation 103 Ineke van der Ham 12 Living Digitally 108 Wendy Moncur 13 Death and Memory in the Twenty-First Century 113 Stacey Pitsillides 14 The Oceanic Literary Reading Mind: An Impression 119 Michael Burke 15 Memory and the Reading Substrate 125 Adriaan van der Weel 16 Memory, Materiality and the Ethics of Reading in the Digital Age 130 Sebastian Groes Part III Ecologies of Memory Introduction to Part III 140 Sebastian Groes 17 Time That Is Intolerant 147 Claire Colebrook 18 Climate Change and Memory 159 Mike Hulme 19 Memories of Snow: Nostalgia, Amnesia, Re-Reading 163 Greg Garrard 20 Writing Climate Change 170 Maggie Gee 21 Against Nostalgia: Climate Change Art and Memory 175 Sebastian Groes Part IV Memory and the Future Introduction to Part IV 190 Sebastian Groes 22 The Trace of the Future 199 Mark Currie 23 Simulation and the Evolution of Thought 205 Joanna J. Bryson 24 Imaginative Anticipation: Rethinking Memory for Alternative Futures 208 Jessica Bland 25 Memory Is No Longer What It Used to Be 213 Patricia Pisters Contents vii 26 ‘We Can Remember It, Funes, Wholesale’: Borges, Total Recall and the Logic of Memory 218 Adam Roberts 27 Remembering without Stored Contents: A Philosophical Reflection on Memory 229 Daniel D. Hutto Part V Forgetting Introduction to Part V 238 Sebastian Groes and Nick Lavery 28 Remembering 251 Larry R. Squire and John T. Wixted 29 Directed Forgetting 263 Karen R. Brandt 30 Remembrance in the Twenty-First Century 268 Peter Childs 31 The Body and the Page in Poetry Readings as Remembrance of Composition 271 Holly Pester 32 Our Plastic Brain: Remembering and Forgetting Art 276 Heather H. Yeung 33 Amnesia and Identity in Contemporary Literature 280 Jason Tougaw 34 Amnesia in Young Adult Fiction 286 Alison Waller 35 Remembering Responsibly 292 Thomas F. Coker and Heather H. Yeung Part VI Twenty-First Century Subjectivities Introduction to Part VI 300 Sebastian Groes and Nick Lavery 36 Losing the Self? Subjectivity in the Digital Age 307 Claire Colebrook 37 Memory and Voices: Challenging Psychiatric Diagnosis through the Novel 316 Patricia Waugh 38 Rereading the Self 325 Alison Waller 39 Neuroscience and Posthuman Memory 330 Robert Pepperell 40 The Confabulation of Self 334 Joanna J. Bryson viii Contents 41 Malingering and Memory 338 Neander Abreu 42 Trauma and the Truth 343 Martijn Meeter Conclusion: ‘The Futures of Memory’ 347 Sebastian Groes References 364 Index 388 List of Figures 3.1 Illustration of the acronym olfactory LOVER covering the core features of an autobiographical memory evoked by olfactory information 44 14.1 The five sign-fed and mind-fed categories active during engaged acts of literary reading that make up the affective inputs 120 14.2 The four fluvial stages of the literary reading loop 122 14.3 The oceanic processing nature of the literary reading mind 123 28.1 The medial temporal lobe memory system 253 28.2 Organization of mammalian long-term memory systems 256 ix Foreword: From Causality to Correlation Memory in the Twenty-First Century, edited by Sebastian Groes, is a remarkable achievement. Bringing together an interdisciplinary mix of scientists, cultural critics, philosophers, writers and literary critics, it ranges across a diverse set of topics, including memory as metaphor, anticipation, ecology, subjectivity and even memory’s seeming antithesis, forgetting. Readers will find an equally rich range of references, including novels, films, poems and art works, in addition to what seems like the entire scholarly repertoire of works on, about, and relating to, memory across the centuries in Western culture. Amidst this profusion, I noticed what seems to me a curious absence. Although digital databases do not go entirely unmentioned in the collection, far less atten- tion is paid to them than seems warranted by their prominence and importance in twenty-first century culture. Although a full analysis of their cultural signifi- cance as an exteriorization of human memory is beyond the scope of this mod- est foreword, a few remarks here may help to underscore their importance and suggest some of their implications for topics covered in the collection from other points of view. Relational databases parse data items into rows and columns in ways that allow them to be searched and concatenated by query languages such as SQL. In this way, they are able to correlate entries with each other, and their standardized for- mats also allow separate databases to be linked so they can be searched together, as if they were individual train cars that can be coupled together to form fantasti- cally long trains puffing off to the horizon. Lev Manovich has famously contrasted database with narrative, calling them ‘natural enemies’ (2001: 228). Databases, on his account, operate according to a paradigmatic logic, consisting of items that can be substituted for one another, while narratives operate according to a syntagmatic logic, adding elements together to achieve artistic effects. As I have noted elsewhere, this claim is not technically correct (Hayles 2007: 1603–1608). Database elements are not alternatives that can be substituted for one another, as in paradigmatic substitutions within a sentence, but rather entries rep- resenting different pieces and kinds of data elements. Moreover, Manovich claims that databases are overtaking narratives in cultural importance, implying that they are ascending while narratives are receding, whereas I see them as ‘natural symbionts’ (2007: 1603) that work together to create a more holistic picture than either could alone. Nevertheless, there is a kernel of truth in Manovich’s observation, for databases are indeed proliferating at an exponential rate far greater than the growth of nar- ratives. With the recent revelations about the NSA’s data collections and surveil- lance practices, there is more reason than ever to be concerned about databases, x Foreword xi their implications for the invasion of privacy, and their use in identifying “persons of interest” for more intense surveillance. In this respect, Louise Amoore’s analysis (Amoore 2011) of what she calls “data derivatives” deserves recognition for exploring the implications of how technical memory is being used in the service of the sovereign state.