Review of Beyond the Archive: Memory, Narrative, and the Autobiographical Process

Bietti, L.M. (2016). Review of the book Beyond the Archive: Memory, Narrative, andthe Autobiographical Process by J. Brockmeier. Forum Qualitative Sozialforschung / Forum: Qualitative Social Research, 17 (3), Art.3

Abstract: Jens BROCKMEIER's new book proposes a very provocative aim for memory studies: "[T]o radically re-think our very idea of memory and challenge the notions of remembering and forgetting that we have taken for granted" (p.vii). The main target for the author's critique is the archival model of memory. In order to support his approach, the author provides empirical evidence from the neurosciences, social sciences, and humanities. "Beyond the Archive" represents an innovative contribution to the field of memory studies. It brings together disparate disciplinary fields in a novel and sophisticated fashion with a clear goal in mind: to propose a new model for the analysis of autobiographical remembering. BROCKMEIER's book is a true exercise of multidisciplinary research in action, which is much needed in the current climate of psychological and neuroscientific reductionism in the sciences of memory.