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Ive been at the internet site Canadian Poetry.org for several years.

One of this sites sub-sections is entitled Mnemographia Canadensis. It is largely the result of "Matters of Memory," a graduate course designed in 1994 by the rinci al contributor of the essays in this collection. !he course "as offered by the #e artment of $nglish at the %niversity of &estern Ontario in 'ondon Ontario in 199(199). I did not artici ate in this course in *anada since, at the time, I "as in the last t"o years of my teaching career as a lecturer in a college in &estern +ustralia. !he course "as aimed at e, loring the literary and material manifestations of "hat has variously been called "collective," "cultural," "social," and " ublic" memory in *anada. !he course consisted of t"o com onents- .1/ a series of resentations by the instructor, #.M.0. 1entley, &estern2s 3chool of *ommunication 3ciences and #isorders, art of the 4aculty of 5ealth 3ciences. !his series of resentations focused on commemorative ractices in *anada bet"een the late eighteenth century and the resent day, "ith articular em hasis on the relationshi bet"een literary and material manifestations of memory6 and .7/ a series of resentations by the other members of the seminar that focused on a selection of national, regional, and local sites of memory such as the Museum of *ivili8ation in Otta"a and the Montreal Massacre monument in 'ondons 9ictoria :ar;. !he difficulties surrounding even the term "memory" in a collective conte,t and of the im ossibility of dealing "ith any matter of ur ortedly collective memory in *anada "ithout also considering issues of community or society, and environment or landsca e, became <uic;ly obvious to the organi8ers. I thought to myself as I read this essay, this introduction to

the sub=ect of collective memory and the course at the university of &estern Ontario by :rofessor 1entley that the rogram had a broad a lication to the community I had been associated "ith no" for (> years. !his community to "hich I refer "as, and is, an international community, not a national one, and it has a history going bac; at least as far as the late 1?th century and into the resent day. @ust as the division of this series of essays Mnemographia Canadensis into t"o arts entitled- .i/ Muse and Recall and .ii/ Remember and See reflected the t"o com onents of the Matters of Memory Seminar, so the subtitle of the collection AEssays on Memory: Community, and Environment in Canada, with Particular Reference to London, Ontario A reflected the breadth, com le,ity, and s ecificity of the to ics addressed by members of the seminar. 'ondon Ontario "as =ust do"n the road, about a 9> minute drive, from "here I gre"-u in southern Ontario. 1ac; in 19(4 I had a summer =ob "hile at university in 5amilton "or;ing =ust outside 'ondon to"ard 3t. !homas. !his division in the sub=ect of memory, I continued to muse, could =ust as easily be a lied to the international 1ahai community. I began my involvement "ith this community as far bac; as 19BC "hen I "as in the years of my late childhood, ages 9 to 17. I continue to be a art of the 1ahai 4aith at the age of (9 in 7>1C (> years later, but I no longer live in *anada but at the other end of the "orld in +ustralia. !he series of essays entitled, Mnemographia ahaensis, is the roduct of a single author and this series that I introduce here raises many broad cultural and social concerns. :erha s it is not too much to ho e that in form as "ell as content Mnemographia ahaensis reflects a 1ahai internationalism that is simultaneously a"are of the achievements and shortcomings of the 1ahai 4aiths history. I ho e I am able in these essays to face the challenges and ossibilities of

creating a multi-ethnic vision of the future and a more luralistic vision of this 4aiths ast than, arguably, it has en=oyed thusfar, in the more than t"o centuries of its history. 1eing the sole author at this stage in the evolution of this series of essays, these essays "ill be, inevitably limited in their range and content. I am no s ecialist in the field of memory. I am =ust one of the academic generalists "ith an interest in memory, es ecially as I head through these middle years, (B to )B, of my late adulthood. Old age, according to one model of human develo ment in the lifes an, begins at (B. I rather li;e the model in "hich old age begins at the age of ?>. !hat gives me another decade before I am old. :erha s by the age of ?> I might have ut some solid meat on these essays. !ime "ill tell. &hile the essays that I ho e to "rite "ill fre<uently touch and dra" u on recent and not-so-recent literary and other theories in the humanities and social sciences----in their readings and soundings of commemorative, communal, and environmental matters---I intend to ma;e a concerted effort, in the interests of accessibility and the avoidance of academic terminology "hich is only familiar to a literary coterie, to avoid unnecessary theoretical terms and to rovide definitions of ones that are necessary either conte,tually or in footnotes. Diven the medley of a roaches that it is ossible to ta;e in this collection of essays, a collection that I trust "ill increasingly characteri8e the gro"th and develo ment of the international 1ahai community6 and given the "imagined communities" in the more than 17>,>>> locations in the "orld "here 1ahais lived by the end of the t"entieth and the first years of the 71st century, a :rocrustean theory of the nature and function of collective memory should neither be e, ected nor missed in the follo"ing essays. &ith the reliminary hel of @ames Mc*on;eys !he

"natomy of Memory: an "nthology .199(/ these essays "ere able to get off the ground, so to s ea;. I follo" Mc*on;eys o"n autobiogra hical "or; Court of Memory, a "or; "hich e, ands the theme of memory to give it the "sense of s ecial im ortance that memory has for us today." In his Preface Mc*on;ey <uotes $.M. 4orster.1?)9-19)>/, the $nglish novelist, short story "riter, essayist and librettist "ho is ;no"n best for his ironic and "ell- lotted novels e,amining class difference and hy ocrisy in early 7>thcentury 1ritish society. In his "spects of the #ovel, 4orster "rote about e, ansion in these "ords- "e, ansion is the idea the novelist must cling to6 not com letion. Eot rounding off but o ening out.F I "ould add that this is e<ually true and, a fortiori, of the oet and essayist. G&hen the sym hony is over,F "rites 1obby Matherne, in his revie" of Mc*on;eys anthology, G"e feel that the notes and tune com osing it have been liberated6 they have found in the rhythm of the "hole their individual freedom. *annot the novel be li;e thatH" &ith the hel of the contributors to !he "natomy of Memory, @ames Mc*on;ey has certainly created such a sym hony or e, ansion on the theme of memory. It is my ho e that I can achieve at least as good a result "ith the series of essays "hich follo". +lso of use in this literary e,ercise "hich I have begun in the evening of my life after nearly (> years of being art of the community at the centre of this series of essays, the 1ahai international community, is the +aron '. 1inen;orb :rofessor $meritus of International 3tudies, Dovernment I +sian 3tudies at *ornell %niversity, 1enedict +nderson.19C(- /. +nderson defined a nation as "an imagined olitical community - and imagined as both inherently limited and sovereign". 1ut I "ill come to +ndersons "or; later, after ma;ing some concluding

comments on Mc*lon;ys ideas. +n imagined community, "rites +nderson, is different from an actual community because it is not---and, for ractical reasons, cannot be---based on everyday face-to-face interaction bet"een its members. Instead, members hold in their minds a mental image of their affinity- for e,am le, the nationhood felt "ith other members of your nation "hen your "imagined community" artici ates in a larger event such as the Olym ic Dames. +s +nderson uts it, a nation "is imagined because the members of even the smallest nation "ill never ;no" most of their fello"-members, meet them, or even hear of them, yet in the minds of each lives the image of their communion". Members of the community robably "ill never ;no" each of the other members face to face6 5o"ever, they may have similar interests or identify as art of the same nation. !he media also create imagined communities, through usually targeting a mass audience or generali8ing and addressing citi8ens as the ublic. !his is true, a fortiori, of the international 1ahai community and its several million members. !hese communities are imagined, as I say above, in both limited and sovereign terms. !he 1ahai community, for me, as "ell as for all of its members, is limited in that it has "finite, if elastic boundaries, beyond "hich lie other individuals and communities. !he 1ahai community is also sovereign since no other community can claim authority over it e,ce t in terms defined by the 1ahai community itself. !he conce t of an international community, any international community, "as born erha s as long ago as the time "hen homo sa iens sa iens moved out of +frica, grou by grou and over many years, and began to inhabit the regions of the

earth beyond the +frican continent. In our modern "orld, though, the international community could be said to e,ist in the years after the $nlightenment and 0evolution "hich together began to see the destruction and the legitimacy of the divinely-ordained, hierarchical dynastic-monarchical realms. In the last t"o centuries our modern "orld has been transformed into a single global community, laneti8ed, as one "riter ut it. !he coming to maturity of nations has ta;en lace at a stage of human history "hen all nations dream of being free under Dod or under la" or both. !he gage and emblem of this freedom has been the sovereign nation state, and increasingly the international community of nations. $ven the most devout adherents of any of the universal religions "ere inesca ably confronted "ith the living luralism of all global religions. !here is, and there has been, a direct relationshi bet"een each faith2s ontological claims and their territorial stretch. +long "ith these nation states there has slo"ly evolved, as I say, an international community. &ith it, at least since the late 1?th century, the 1abi-1ahai community has also been increasingly evolving "ithin this essentially international arena. $ven though "e may never see anyone in our imagined community, "e still ;no" they are there through communication. !his international 1ahai community is an imagined community because, regardless of any actual ine<uality or any e, loitation its members face, any tests and difficulties that may revail in any art of it, it is al"ays conceived as a dee , hori8ontal comradeshi . %ltimately it is this confraternity that has made it ossible, over the ast t"o

centuries, for so many of its members to give their lives for such limited imaginings. +ccording to +nderson, the creation of imagined communities became ossible because of " rint-ca italism". *a italist entre reneurs rinted their boo;s and media in the vernacular, instead of e,clusive scri t languages, such as 'atin, in order to ma,imi8e circulation. +s a result, readers s ea;ing various local dialects became able to understand each other, and a common discourse emerged. +nderson argued that the first $uro ean nation-states "ere thus formed around their national rint-languages. !he international community "as also formed due to the lingua 4ranca of $nglish, international trade, indeed, a cornuco ia of internationali8ing tendencies in our modern age, tendencies "hich are a sub=ect itself. Imagined communities can also be seen as a form of social constructionism "hich is an ongoing, dynamic rocess that is and must be re roduced by eo le acting on their inter retations and their ;no"ledge of the rocess. Its on a ar "ith $d"ard 3aids conce t of imagined geogra hies. $d"ard 3aid.19CB-7>>C/ "as a :alestinian-+merican literary theoretician, %niversity :rofessor of $nglish and *om arative 'iterature at *olumbia %niversity, and a ublic intellectual "ho "as a founding figure of the critical field of ost-colonialism. !here is an uto ian element in internationalism. +ccording to this theory of imagined communities, the main causes of internationalism are the declining im ortance of rivileged access to articular scri t languages such as 'atin because of mass vernacular literacy6 the movement to abolish the ideas of rule by divine right and hereditary monarchy6 and the

emergence of rinting ress ca italismAall henomena occurring "ith the start of the Industrial 0evolution in the late 1?th century. $thnic grou s, and a lethora of sub-cultures, are different from nations. Eations are the result of a tri le revolution that began "ith the develo ment of ca italism and they have led to a bureaucratic and cultural centrali8ation along "ith a loss of o"er by various institutional religions. &ith the environmental crisis of the 7>th and 71st centuries comes a crisis of the imagination, a need to find ne" "ays to understand nature and humanitys relation to it. !his is the challenge 'a"rence 1uell.19C9- / ta;es u in his boo; !he Environmental $magination, the most ambitious study to date of ho" literature re resents the natural environment. &ith !horeaus %alden as a touchstone, 1uell gives us a far-reaching account of environmental erce tion, the lace of nature in the history of "estern thought, and the conse<uences for literary scholarshi of attem ting to imagine a more "eco-centric" "ay of being. In doing so, he rovides a ma=or ne" understanding of !horeaus achievement and, at the same time, a rofound rethin;ing of our literary and cultural reflections on nature. !he green tradition in +merican "riting commands 1uells s ecial attention, articularly environmental non-fiction from colonial times to the resent. In "or;s by "riters from *revecoeur to &endell 1erry, @ohn Muir to +ldo 'eo old, 0achel *arson to 'eslie 3il;o, Mary +ustin to $d"ard +bbey, he e,amines enduring environmental themes such as the dream of relin<uishment, the ersonification of the nonhuman, an attentiveness to environmental cycles, a devotion to lace, and a ro hetic a"areness of ossible eco-

catastro he. +t the centre of this study "e find an image of &alden as a <uest for greater environmental a"areness, an im etus and guide for 1uell as he develo s a ne" vision of environmental "riting and see;s a ne" "ay of conceiving the relation bet"een human imagination and environmental actuality in the age of industriali8ation. Intricate and challenging in its arguments, yet engagingly and elegantly "ritten, !he Environmental $magination is a ma=or "or; of scholarshi , one that establishes a ne" basis for reading +merican nature "riting. !he Environmental $magination "as "ritten by 'aurence 1uell, a 5arvard +merican literature rofessor, and "as ublished in 199B. &ith 47B ages of te,t, and 1B> ages of small rint notes, it2s an intimidating academic treatise. 1ut its also a o ular gos el roclaiming a aradigm shiftJa millennial ne" order of "ords and things. On the second age, 1uell introduces that gos el "ith a <uote from Earth in the alance a 1997 boo; by then 3enator +lbert Dore- ""e must ma;e rescue of the environment the central organi8ing rinci le for civili8ation." 1uell notes the si,fold increase of membershi in environmental organi8ations bet"een 19(1 and 19?>, and a "idely-felt need for a changed "ay of living and thin;ing to stave off im ending ecological catastro he. 5is boo; addresses that need for rescue or salvation, not "ith a rogram of action but "ith a search through +mericas cultural heritage for tools to rema;e a "orldvie". 5e discovers them in a tradition of nature "riting "hose centre is the life and "or; of 5enry #avid !horeau. 'i;e !horeaus, 1uells rose is dense, difficult and

delightful. Its full of une, ected tra s and sur rises. +nd li;e !horeaus, 1uells "or; is o en to inter retation and <uestioning. 0eading it closely encourages me to reaffirm my o"n beliefs on the environment, and reading it critically forces me to recogni8e some of the limits and arado,es of those beliefs. $nvironmentalism, genuine and fa;e, has ermeated more and more as ects of +merican, "estern and international culture- science, art, technology, agriculture, business, ethics, olitics, religion, s orts, fashion and the media. Many local councils no" a oint an environmental coordinator, a erson "hose function is to deal "ith environmental <uestions, as a ma=or staff osition. Ee"s a ers often feature one and sometimes t"o re orters and "ee;ly sections devoted to $nvironment. Eumerous de artments at tertiary educational institutions include the "ord environment in their names, including $nvironmental 5orticulture, $nvironmental $ngineering, and $nvironmental #esign. +n instance of this nomenclature boom is the birth of a disci line in literary studies called $co-criticism, also ;no"n as $co-crit or $co-lit. PML", the flagshi rofessional =ournal in humanities, rinted a s ecial sym osium on the sub=ect in its October 1999 issue, and #ew Literary &istory, the trendiest of <uarterlies, devotes its current issue to the henomenon. + ne" "orld"ide organi8ation, !he "ssociation for the 'tudy of Literature and the Environment ublishes its o"n =ournal, Interdisciplinary Studies in Literature and the Environment. 3ome of the rinci les of $co-criticism are stated by @anet +rnold, :rofessor of $nglish at 5arvey Mudd *ollege, as

follo"s'oo;ing at te,ts for their ideas about the natural "orld results in a cross fertili8ation of the humanities "ith other academic disci lines- "hen literature combines "ith biology, cultural theory, biochemistry, art, ecology, history and other sciences, any combination of these fields forms a cauldron of brand ne" ers ectives. !hrough eco-critical ractice, the humanities can lay a unifying role in creating a ne" form of ;no"ledge. .19?9-9>/ 1uells boo; has become a founding te,t in this field. + moral and olitical commitment informs its scholarshi . 1uell calls that commitment "$co-centrism" or "1iocentrism," terms "hich he sets in o osition to "homocentrism," and defines "ith <uotations from a number of its ractitioners. :hiloso her !imothy O0iordan states that $co-centrism " reaches the virtues of reverence, humility, res onsibility, and care6 it argues for lo" im act technology but it is not anti-technological6 it decries bigness and im ersonality in all formsKit see;s ermanence and stability based u on ecological rinci les of diversity and homeostasis" .Environmentalism 7d ed. 'ondon :ion 19?1 .1./ :olitical scientist 0obyn $c;ersly says that $co-centrism regards "the <uestion of our ro er lace in the rest of nature as logically rior to the <uestion of "hat are the most a ro riate social and olitical arrangements for human communities." .$nvironmentalism and olitical theoryto"ard an eco-centric a roach +lbany- 3tate %niversity of EL :ress, 1997, . 7?./ +ccording to @ean +rnold, $co-centrism finds that "K all human culture resides in the natural "orldKevery enny of

economic "orth ultimately dra"s on resources of the natural "orldK" 1uell asserts that $co-centrism res onds to a ressing demand- "K"estern meta hysics and ethics need revision before "e can address todays environmental roblemsKenvironmental crisis involves a crisis of the imagination the amelioration of "hich de ends on finding better "ays of imagining nature and humanitys relation to it.".7/ +nd $co-criticism can fill that demand by loo;ing searchingly at the most searching "or;s of environmental reflection...to find...both the athologies that bedevil society...and some of the alternative aths that it might consider.".7/ !he ;ind of revision he advocates recalls other controversial revisionisms in humanist studies during the last C> yearsethnic studies, feminism, ne" historicism, deconstruction, ost-colonialism. $co-centrism re"rites acce ted canonsJof im ortant te,ts, of methods of teaching and learning from them, and of individual leaders "hose lives and "or;s are "orthy of emulation. $co-critics have re laced $merson "ith !horeau as the ;ey figure of early +merican thought. !hey have added forgotten or una reciated authors, li;e 3usan 4enimore *oo er, *elia !ha,ter, Mary +ustin, @ohn 1urroughs, @ohn Muir, +ldo 'eo old, $d"ard +bbey, 1arry 'o e8, &allace 3tegner, 0achel *arson, and +nnie #illard, to their reading lists. !hey have resuscitated observation, accuracy, and realism as literary values, reversing " ostmodern" assum tions about the dis=unction among te,t, mind and hysical "orld. !hey have crossed barriers bet"een fiction and non-fiction, autobiogra hy and e, osition, creative "riting and criticism. !hey consider "riters about evolutionary biology, geogra hy, and social ecology as models of literary

reflection. $co-criticism em hasi8es a connection bet"een canoni8ed te,ts, teaching methods and the obligations of citi8enshi in a "orld "here "$cocide is more of a threat than nuclear "ar.".(/ +nd eco-criticism em hasi8es o ortunities of citi8enshi in +merican democracy "hich is more conscious of that threat and yet more "consum tion addicted" than any other in the "orld. !he olitical significance of eco-criticism stems from the fact that, "&e live our lives by meta hors that have become dece tively trans arentKfor instance M rogress.." and that "+esthetics can become a decisive force for or against environmental change.".4/ !he Environmental $magination is ambitious, innovative, and rovocative enough to "arrant its o"n scholarly sym osium. !he boo;2s subtitle indicates its breadth of sco e- Thoreau, Nature ritin! and the "ormation of #merican $ulture. In the first aragra h the author states his sub=ect as a "broad study of environmental erce tion, the lace of nature in the history of "estern thought, and the conse<uences for literary scholarshi and K humanistic thoughtKof attem ting to imagine a more Meco-centric "ay of beingK.".1/ 1uell gains authority for ta;ing on such an e,tensive ro=ect "ith the <uality of his scholarshi . !his "as already established in revious boo;s, here raised by one revie"er for theirK"ide s eculative range, their engaging of current critical concerns, their informed attention to literary and scholarly origins, and above all their ability to o en u issues in "ays that rovo;e further considerations from the reader rather than closing do"n u on terminal truths. .@ohn Mc&illiams Eineteenth *entury 'iterature/

5e seems to have closely read everything related to his sub=ect, from obscure nineteenth century advertisements and editorial corres ondence to hiloso hical brain t"isters by 5eidegger and Merleau :onty. +nd his analysis of literary "or;s Im familiar "ith, from $dmund 3 ensers !he 3he herds *alendar to 'eslie Marmon 3il;os *eremony, is sound and original. 1uells "rites ruminatively, che"ing over sub=ects, s"allo"ing and digesting them more than once. 4or e,am le- *onsider !horeau on the sub=ect of mus;rat houses, "singularly cons icuous for the d"ellings of animals." .@B-44>/ !heir regular a earance in autumn he al"ays loo;ed for"ard to and seldom failed to note, often at length. !horeau had an engineers interest in the details of mus;rat construction, but more note"orthy is his styli8ation of the inert data so as to enliven it "ith lace-sense. Mus;rat nests are not things but habitats, d"ellings remotely li;e ones o"n that rovide a basis for erasing the line bet"een village and outbac; and seeing both as variant forms of settlement in lace. +t times this language gets inflated or clotted, at times aragra hs or sentences are so intricate that its hard to follo" the thread of the argument. 1ut the com le,ity of the style reflects the sub=ect. 1uell finds a similar characteristic in his master2s rose- "One of &aldens more frustrating charms is that it so easily loses the reader in the landsca e of the te,t." + boo; this dense and e, ansive needs to be ma ed, and 1uell does that "ith section and cha ter headings, "ith refatory and retros ective summaries and "ith e, licit or sometimes hidden transitions. 5e divides the "hole into

three sections, each of "hich is long, re"arding and selfcontained enough to ta;e u a se arate boo;. 1ut my second reading discovered the sha e of the "hole and roduced a coherent cumulative effect. 4rom the re aratory abstraction of section I, it rogresses to an engaging ramble through the eco-literary landsca e of section II, and it concludes in section III "ith a ilgrimage to the shrine of the saint, an homage to his achievement, an encounter "ith his resence, and a blessing to ta;e home. 3ection 1 drably titled "5istorical and !heoretical *onte,ts," surveys the "hole field of eco-literature. *ha ter 1, introduces the genre as a version of astoral--the cultural tradition based on the "idea of a .re/turn to a more Mnatural state of e,istence." 1uell notes the arado, that the astoral tradition both contributes to an environmental aesthetic and bloc;s it by artificially romantici8ing or ironically satiri8ing natural life. 3imilar arado,es are e, lored in cha ter 7, "Ee" &orld #reams and $nvironmental +ctualities," "here 1uell sho"s ho" +mericas historically ac<uired astoral identity as a "orld of nature rather than civili8ation has led both to a reciation and illage of the environment. *ha ter C, "0e resenting the $nvironment," derives a method of reading and "riting about nature from e,am les that combine scientific observation "ith literary tools li;e meta hor, analogy, and shifting ers ective. 1uell calls this method of re resentation "dual accountability" to scientific and aesthetic truth. *ha ter 4, "&aldens $nvironmental :ro=ect," elaborates t"o "ays that !horeau models ecocentrism- first, his ersonal evolution a"ay from human interests and to"ard urely natural ones--to"ard "hat +ldo 'eo old called "!hin;ing li;e a mountain." 3econd is his sta;ing out the territory of eco-centrism "ith si, ma=or

concerns- 1.the glorification of nature 7. the corres ondence bet"een natural and s iritual C. economy or self-regulation 4. interest in environmental science, B. landsca e aesthetics, and (. a olitical rogram to conserve natural resources. 3ection II of the boo;, "4orms of 'iterary $co-centrism," ta;es a less schematic a roach. 1uell leads the reader on a ;ind of docents "al; through characteristic features of environmental te,ts. Incidentally, such recurrent rhetorical to ics are technically called "to oi," Dree; for laces in a landsca e. *ha ter B, "!he +esthetics of 0elin<uishment," is about "e ics of voluntary sim licity." 1uell lin;s !horeaus retreat to his small cabin "ith traditional astoral celebrations of leisure and solitude, early :uritan notions of austerity and holiness, and 1en=amin 4ran;lins ideals of economy and racticality. !he same "master lot" sha es the "ritings of +ldo 'eo old, @ohn Muir, +nnie #illard, 3cott and 5elen Eearing and 1radford +ngier. In this lot, material ossessions and comforts are e,changed for inner a"a;ening and a restored connection to nature. + variant of the lot is relin<uishment of the individual ego. !his is achieved by &endell 1erry through immersion in the village life of rural communities and by 0obinson @effers through a claimed transcendence of both social and self- reservation instinctsJ an identification "ith s;y, "ind and roc; he called "inhumanism." +nother variant of eco-centric relin<uishment is ure "e,tros ection"Jthat is, the effort to e, erience and record the "orld "ithout any mediating feeling or thoughtJas ractised at times by oets li;e &. *. &illiams, &allace 3tevens, !heodore 0oeth;e, +.0. +mmons and Dary 3nyder.

+c;no"ledging the roblematical <uality of such endeavours, 1uell concludes this cha ter by noting ho" !horeau uses the ronoun "I" less and less rominently in the course of his career as his understanding of nature gro"s. *ha ter (, entitled "Eatures :ersonhood," surveys environmental literatures theme of ersonification, often referred to as "the athetic fallacy." 1uell lays out the old conflict bet"een agans "ho find deities in trees and rivers and @udaeo *hristianitys abhorrence of nature gods. 1ut des ite religious and rationalistic ob=ections, the im ulse to ersonify nature still survives both in ietistic notions of ;ind or abused mother nature, and in #ar"inist arallels bet"een human com etitive brutality and the struggle for e,istence, such as those ortrayed by "naturalist" "riters li;e @ac; 'ondon or 4ran; Eorris. !horeau continually indulged in ersonificationJ&alden :ond "hoo s and farts .7>?/. @ames 'oveloc;s Daia hy othesis, stating that earth itself is a living organism, has achieved some credibility among scientists, and the %.3. $ndangered 3 ecies +ct of 19)C gives legal standing to natural s ecies. In Eative +merican myths "hich resent animals, lants and landsca e features as different ;inds of " eo le," in narratives of bonding bet"een gorillas and humans, in modern goddess religions "orshi ing the great earth mother, 1uell finds meta hors of ;inshi bet"een humans and nature, "hich, ""hether true or not, "hen acce ted as language can strengthen an environmental ethic.".71?/ *ha ter ). "Eatures 4aceNMinds $ye- 0eali8ing the 3easons," follo"s the trail of the revious cha ter but s"itches bac; from ro=ecting human traits out"ard to discovering the natural attern of the seasons "ithin human e,istence. 1uell attributes the ancestry of this convention to

agricultural oems called Deorgics, astorals li;e 3 ensers !he 3he herds *alendar, and heroic narratives li;e 3ir Da"ain and the Dreen Onight. #etailed analysis of seasonal motifs in &alden, in @ames !homsons !he 3easons, and in "or;s by *elia !ha,ter and +nnie #illard sho" ho" this o ular convention is fragmented and dislocated for so histicated oetic effects. 5o"ever, no matter ho" subtle, all literary arallels bet"een seasons, moods and life stages "!ease us to"ard a"areness of ourselves as environmental beings." .7B1/ If the cycle of seasons illuminates natures influence on human time, another as ect of environmental "riting locates human e,istence in natural s ace. *ha ter ?, called ":lace," e,amines the to ic of territoriality. 1uell begins "ith cultural geogra her Li 4u !uans observation that lace-sense holds " syche and society together by su lying a dee ly satisfying sense of home base or home rangeK" and &endell 1errys assertion that "&ithout a com le, ;no"ledge of ones lace, and "ithout the faithfulness to ones lace on "hich such ;no"ledge de ends, it is inevitable that the lace "ill be used carelessly, and eventually destroyed." $nvironmental "riting conveys ;no"ledge and love of lace "ith descri tions, ma s and itineraries enabling eo le to a reciate their location as do aborigines or animals. 3uch literature also enlivens the e, erience of everyday laces "ith ne" facts and rhetorical devices that can "recalibrate familiar landsca esKto ;ee alive a sense of the Mundiscovered country of the nearby".7(7/ 3usan 4enimore *oo er, for e,am le, describes her to"n from the vantage of an inegrove, "3eeing things ne", seeing ne" things, e, anding the notion of community so that it becomes situated "ithin the

ecological communityK".7((/ !he rinci le of dual accountability to scientific and aesthetic truth a lies here, in terms of "hat 1uell calls "Ma ;no"ledge and lace sense." In +rctic #reams, 1arry 'o e8 charts the landsca e "ith official ma s and then describes the same territory "ith traditional $s;imo mar;ers. &illiam 'east 5eat Moon sets an account of the #a;ota rairies divided into survey <uadrangles against an account divided by drainages and migrations. !horeau, the surveyor lays the mathematical ma ing of &alden ond "ith soundings and calculations against symbolic tales of its false bottoms and mysterious de ths. !hese "riters direct both official and intuitive ;no"ledge to"ard "to o- hilia," the love of lace. *ha ter 9, "$nvironmental + ocaly ticism" somberly concludes 1uells tour "ith literary visions of environmental catastro he. !he "hole order of Eature has been re resented by various "master meta hors"- a machine, an economy, a chain of being, a balance, a mind, an organism, a "eb. 1uell sho"s ho" the "eb image is used by t"o authors to ro hesy that unintended conse<uences of human interventions "ith nature can lead to "orld"ide disaster. 0achel *arson in !he 3ilent 3 ring and 'eslie Marmon 3il;o in *eremony tell stories in "hich the introduction of ##! into the food chain and the release of atomic energy in bombs and uranium mines tear and eventually colla se the "hole "eb of life. + ocaly se is another religious meta hor, one effective in lending urgency to calls for individual and social change. Indeed, as 1uell oints out, *arsons doomsday boo; layed a significant art in outla"ing the use of ##! and in assage of the $ndangered 3 ecies +ct.

3ection III of !he $nvironmental Imagination, entitled "$nvironmental 3ainthood," devotes even more attention to !horeau than the others, but here "e encounter him less as a te,t and more as a erson, an icon and a s irit. In this section, 1uell cleverly uses religious language to illuminate "ays that any leader "ho bears a vital message of rescue or salvation can be elevated to sainthood by a combination of ersonal creativity, institutional su ort, historical accident, and audience a eal. *ha ter 1>, "!he !horeauvian :ilgrimage," traces arallels bet"een !horeaus lifelong migration to"ard eco-centrism, the "master narrative" of his astoral retreat to &alden, and =ourneys of disci les li;e @ohn Muir "hich included a visit to the holy shrine of the ond itself. *ha ter 11, "!he *anoni8ation and 0e-canoni8ation of the Dreen !horeau," recounts the long history of !horeaus image as crafted by business, academic and olitical interests. *ha ter 17, "!e,t as !estament," moves from the "ay !horeau lioni8ed himself in his "riting to the "ays his surviving ersonal resence affects later readers, sometimes "ith transformative o"er. 3ucceeding generations regard of !horeau confirms 1uells observations that "Most eo le need role models as oints of reference for constructing their lives,".C17/ and that "4igures seen as Mma=or or Mgreat have the otentialKto further the rocess of cultural changeK" &hile dis osing of silly arguments about the "death of the author" that reoccu y some literary critics, 1uell ma;es the im ortant oint that ersonal admiration for a real author can a"a;en a reader and motivate olitical action. 5e distinguishes such admiration from slavish hero "orshi by em hasi8ing the subtlety, com le,ity and evolving nature of !horeaus

thoughtJ<ualities "hich ma;e faith and imitation a broadening rather than narro"ing e, erience. "*ertainly !horeau "rote &alden in such a "ay to hel us to this liberated form of disci leshi K".C?4/ !his descri tion is echoed by "hat the revie"er I <uoted earlier said about 1uells o"n "or;. !hough I am dee ly grateful for this boo;, I have some reservations about it. 4irst are stylistic ones. I thin; if 1uell or his editor had considered his audience to be educated readers rather than academics, his rose might have been more =argon-free, fluent and lucid. +nd though he says coyly "I consider myself as a retty fair natural historian,".11/ the author only includes one unim ressive assage of his o"n nature descri tion- "the grove of second gro"th "hite ines that s"ay at this moment of "riting, "ith their blue-yello"green five-needle clusters above s i;ey circles of atro hied lo"er limbs, along a bro"n needle-stre"n ridge of shale forty feet from my com uter screenKis not the "oods imagined by +merican criticism." .1>/ 3econd, in res ect to understanding the astoral tradition, I "as disa ointed that 1uell left out +rthur O. 'ove=oys research on the history of the ideas of Eature and of :rimitivism, research "hich could clarify and com licate 1uell2s central and I thin; oversim lified conce t of ecocentrism. 1uells o osition of eco-centric vs. homocentric outloo;s is useful but limited. !heodore Oas8yns;i might be a model eco-centrist, but is he a more effective rotector of nature than say E+3+ scientists "ith su ercom uters "ho study global "armingH Is cor orate helico ter logging more homocentric than slash and burn clearing of rainforests by easantsH Is the environmental imagination distinct from, or

=ust one dimension of the human imaginationH + negative re ly to this last <uestion is at the heart of another big boo; called 'andsca e and Memory.Ee" Lor;Ono f, 199B/ ublished the same year as 1uells by former 5arvard rofessor 3imon 3chama. Its (7B ages are also devoted to the analysis of nature "riting and ainting, its section headings are labelled "&ood," "&ater," and "0oc;," and its e igra h and closing "ords are <uotations from !horeau. 3chamas language is more graceful than 1uells-as evident in their boo;s2 titles--and his many assages of descri tive "riting are beautiful and vivid. 1ut his thesis runs counter to the tenets of eco-centrism. 0ather than olari8ing eco-centric vs. homocentric, or nature vs. culture, 3chama claims that they overla , and he moc;s the distinction!he founding fathers of modern environmentalism, 5enry #avid !horeau and @ohn Muir, romised that "in "ildness is the reservation of the "orld," Kbut of course the healing "ilderness "as as much the roduct of cultures craving and cultures framing as any other imagined garden." .)/ !hough neither 3chama nor 1uell cites the other, their o osing vie"s are useful correctives. 3chama ac;no"ledges "Kthat the im act of humanity on the earths ecology has not been an unmi,ed blessing," but claims "neither has the long relationshi bet"een nature and culture been an unrelieved and redetermined calamity.".9-1>/ 5e "une<uivocally sharePsQ dismay at the ongoing degradation of the lanet and much of the foreboding about the ossibilities of its restoration to good health." +nd li;e 1uell, he ho es to ameliorate the roblem "by revealing the richness, anti<uity and com le,ity of our landsca e

tradition." 1ut, "Instead of assuming the mutually e,clusive character of &estern culture and nature, I "ant to suggest the strength of lin;s that have bound them together.".14./ !hough this sounds reasonable, $uro ean-born 3chamas o"n biases are evident in the revulsion "ith "hich he describes environmental activists, *alifornia forest-d"ellers, and "hat he maintains is his childrens abhorrence of rimeval "ilderness- "K"hen they sa" the red"oods, these seemed more li;e monsters than marvels. !heir vague discomfort and irritability turned into something li;e fearK they "anted out of the re tilian tomb of rehistory." .747/ !hese boo;s mirror my life e, erience and my reading. In 19)> my "ife @an and I follo"ed the master lot of +esthetic relin<uishment "hen "e moved from Ee" Lor; to the "ilderness of 1ritish *olumbia to see; a life of voluntary sim licity. #uring our first four years of ad=ustment, "hat "e found "as anything but sim le, and during the second four years sim licity turned to boredom. My so=ourn there ended "ith "riting a :h# dissertation and a boo; on astoral literature "hich concluded that life in the hinterlands is good for young eo le and old ones, but that middle aged citi8ens find a home in the city, "here they can do more for the lanet and themselves than off in the "oods. !he de arture from the astoral "orld is another master lot, one not treated by 1uell. !hese boo;s also challenge me to state "here I stand on the olitical issues they raise, issues "hich are unavoidable by those "ho a reciate their surroundingsJhere on *alifornias central coast or any"here on earth. 'ast night 3an 'uis Obis os *ity :lanning *ommission discussed the ros and cons of building a edestrian and bicycle trail along the undevelo ed section of the cree; bet"een Marsh 3treet and

Madonna 0oad. +rguments fle" among homo-centrists "ho "ant to ar;ify the cree; for eo le, eco-centrists "ho "ant to leave it alone for bird and fish habitat, and auto-centrists "ho "ant to fill it "ith concrete for ar;ing s aces and flood control. I thin; I refer to ma;e the cree; a resource that can be shared by eo le and "ildlife "hile it runs through the city, a resource that "ill demand energy to ;ee free from ollution by industrial garbage, by non-native "eeds, and by various forms of human "aste. 1ut Im not sure. &hat I ;no" I dont "ant is for us to follo" the third alternative, li;e those in 3outhern *alifornia "ho aved over almost every natural "atercourse and "etland in the hundred fifty miles bet"een 3anta Monica and 5untington 1each. 0aymond &illiams recognition of the "selectivity" of "hat asses as "tradition" in "1ase and 3u erstructure in Mar,ist *ultural !heory" .19)C/, an essay "hich is relevant to the resent collection, comes artly through the offs ring that it hel ed to create, most notably !he $nvention of !radition .19?C/, edited by $.@. 5obsba"m and !erence 0anger, and 5obsba"ms o"n #ations and #ationalism since ()*+: Programme, Myth, Reality .199>/.C Eo less of a resence in the bac;ground of the collection are the meditations of @ose h :riestley in his 'ectures on 5istory, and Deneral :olicy .1)??/ on the merits of "visible monuments" and "historical oems" in " er etuating memory" .)(/ and the rognostications of Deorge Or"ell in Eineteen $ighty-4our .1949/ on the mani ulation of history to serve the needs of the resent and, as im ortant, on the contribution to communal solidarity of actual or imagined conflicts "ith some fearsome and detested "Other." It is surely not fortuitous either that so many of *anadas monuments and long oems commemorate military sacrifices and events or that anti-+mericanism became a

defining feature of *anadas embryonic culture during and after the +merican 0evolution and the &ar of 1?17. +re the great monuments and commemorative cemeteries of the 4irst &orld &ar, then, the evidence of *anadas coming-of-age or attem ts to mani ulate o ular consciousnessH *ould they be bothH 3uch <uestions are never far from the centre of the essays here, "hether the focus be on the Eational &ar Memorial in Otta"a, the 3es<uicentennial *elebrations in 5amilton, or the *elebrate the !hames ro=ect in 'ondon. In a roaching the sub=ect of .collective/ memory itself, the Matters of Memory 3eminar benefitted greatly from a vast and ra idly gro"ing body of scientific and critical literature.( &ith Maurice 5alb"achs 'a MRmoire collective .19B>6 trans. 19?>/,) @ac<ues 'e Doffs 3toria e memoria .19))6 trans. 1997/,? :ierre Eoras 'es 'ieu, de mRmoire .19?4-1997/,9 and 3teven 0oseMs !he Ma;ing of Memory- from Molecules to Mind .1997/1> as rinci al oints of de arture, the seminar ranged "idely and eclectically in the field of memory studies, but "ith a gro"ing recognition of the im ortance of the "or; of 3igmund 4reud and his heirs on mourning and melancholy11 and of several ma=or thin;ers and scholars in s eciali8ed areasAof 4rances +. Lates and 5enri 'efebvre on the relationshi s bet"een lace and recall,17 of $ndel !ulving on "e isodic" and "semantic" memory,1C of :aul *onnerton on the role of rituals in sustaining and conveying memories,14 of Ian 5ac;ing on the develo ment of the sciences of memory in the late nineteenth century,1B and of Dayle Dreene on the need for feminists .and, by e,tension, other rogressives/ to remember the ast in order to avoid re eating its errors.1( If there is one theory of the nature and function of individual and collective memory underlying all of the resent essays, it is the constructionism of the 1ritish sychologist 4.*. 1artlett. "P&Qhen a sub=ect is being as;ed to remember,"

1artlett "rites in 0emembering- a 3tudy in $, erimental and 3ocial :sychology .19C7/, very often the first thing that emerges is something of the nature of an attitude. !he recall is then a construction, made largely on the basis of this attitude, and its general effect is that of a =ustification of the attitude" .7>)/. +s sce tical of the notion of collective memory as he is convinced of the constructive nature of individual remembering, 1artlett nevertheless concedes that "PsQocial organi8ation gives a ersistent frame"or; into "hich all detailed recall must fit, and it very o"erfully influences both the matter and the manner of recall" .79(/.1) In other "ords, only individuals have the ca acity to remember, but reliminary, and, indeed, rior, to the rocess of individual recall there e,ists a mental . re-/dis osition that has been at least artly sha ed by a social or communal environment- to s ea; of the "memory of PaQ grou " is to reify and transcendentali8e6 to s ea; of "memory in PaQ grou " is to ac;no"ledge both the singularity of individual recollection and its relation to a surrounding society or communityA*anada, say, or 'ondon. Of the numerous other assum tions and characteristics that these essays have in common, one more is "orth mentioning here. It is sim ly the ho e that, in its small "ay, Mnemogra hia *anadensis may hel to a"a;en an "attitude" of recall and create a "frame"or;" of remembrance that "ill enable *anadians to retain consciousness of their uni<ue and fragile communities and environments and thus to resist the homogeni8ing and degrading effects of multi-national ca italism and consumerism. "4orgetfulnessKis driven by an unsha;able belief in rogress," "rote 0ussell @acoby in 19)B of a "social and economic dynamic" in "hich "oblivion and novelty feed off each other and flourish" in the same sho ing mall as " lanned obsolescence," "ram ant sub=ectivism," "blind materialism, and su erficial humanism" .1, 4, 1B>/.

Memory, it could be said in 199?, is crucial to the reclamation of men and "omens full humanityAtheir sense of a continuity, even a comradeshi , bet"een resent, ast, and future generationsA"ithout "hich the human race and its sustaining environments are doomed to become the victims of the ernicious cultural and ersonal values diagnosed by @acoby.1? In art because it is a society of immigrants, a "tomorro"s country," ad=acent to one of the most o"erful manufacturers of the goods and evils of rogress, *anada has been es ecially rone to "social amnesia," to the "refusal or inability to thin; bac;" .@acoby C-4/, that undermines eo les abilities to thin; critically, to use language accurately, to understand and e,ercise their democratic rights and res onsibilities. +s 3ara @eannette #uncan long since observed in !he Im erialist .19>4/, *anada is a "ne" country already old in ac<uiescence" .(4-(B/, a society rich in history and values as "ell as ho es and resources, a vast and rivileged ortion of the globe in "hich memory and understanding may yet so nourish right thin;ing and right action that they become, in the "ords of Margaret +visons "3no"" .19(>/, the "rhi8omes" that "<ua;e" the "astonished cinders" .7)/. ------------------------------------------------------------------------+ Eote on *itations, #ates, and the Inde, !o identify the sources of <uotations as recisely and concisely as ossible, age references have been given in roman ty e and line references to long oems in italics. !hus, "'am man, :oems 1?>-?1" refers to ages in +rchibald 'am mans :oems and "Malcolms Oatie C- 9-1C" refers to the given art and lines of Isabella 9alancy *ra"fords long oem. !o assist the reader in establishing the tem oral conte,ts of discussions, the date of a "or;s first ublication is su lied

"ith initial citations. %nless other"ise indicated, such dates refer in the case of literary "or;s to their first ublication in boo; form under their authors name. !he Im erialist, for e,am le, "as first ublished as a boo; in 19>4 and "3no"" "as first collected in +visons &inter 3un volume of 19(>. +n Inde, to the collection a volume. ears at the end of the second

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Eotes + slightly revised version of "4orgetful of 4ormer *are" a eared in The $anadian Essay .1991/, edited by Derald 'ynch and #avid 0am ton. Pbac;Q 1.Originally a musical term referring to a com osition in "hich each art has an inde endent melody, " oly honic" .literally, many-voiced/ and the related term " olyglossia" have been influentially used by M.M. 1a;htin in The %ialo!ue Ima!ination& "our Essays .19?C/ to describe the variety of social voices and distinct languages to be heard in the novel. In form as "ell as content, the essays gathered here under the title Muse and Recall aim to allo" a variety of individual and re resentative voices to be heard both as distinct utterances and as art of a continuing discussion. +s "ill <uic;ly be recogni8ed, the essays in the first volume also use such devices as emblem, e'emplum, arable, synecdoche, and su lement .an addition that

signals incom leteness Psee @ac<ues #errida, (f )rammatolo!y .19()6 trans. 19)(/ 144-4BQ/ to indicate the artiality .in both senses of the "ord/ that inevitably inheres in a ro=ect of the sco e indicated by the full title of the resent collection. Pbac;Q 7.3ee also 0ichard !erdimans "#econstructing Memory- on 0e resenting the :ast and !heori8ing *ulture in 4rance since the 0evolution" .19?B/ and Present Past& Modernity and the Memory $risis .199C/.
1.

2.

3ee @onathan 4. 9ances %eath So Noble& Memory, Meanin!, and the "irst orld ar .199)/ for a detailed e, osition of the Dreat &ar as *anadas rite of assage from colony to nation. Pbac;Q In Monumental #ccusations& the monuments au, morts as E'pressions of Popular Resentments .199(/, MarilSne :atten 5enry adds that ""ar monuments have al"ays been considered manifestations of gratitude to those "ho gave the su reme sacrifice," but they may also be "not so silent e, ressions of a blend of resentment, anger, and misery directed at the "ar and the "ay in "hich it "as conducted" .9/. Pbac;Q M.E. Loungs *iblio!raphy of Memory .19(1/ remains a useful starting oint for memory studies and :.$. Morriss "!heories of Memoryan 5istorical :ers ective" .19)?/ rovides a succinct survey of "the

3.

develo ment of thin;ing about memory" .1/ from classical times to the contem orary eriod, though, of course, both need to be heavily su lemented by more recent and more detailed materials. Pbac;Q 4. 5alb"achs defines collective memory in contradistinction to autobiogra hical memory, and subdivides it into three categories or sitesAthe family, religion, and social classesA"here the memories of the grou are ;e t alive in the minds of its constituent members through commemorative festivals and the li;e. 4or a succinct and erce tive discussion of the conte,t and content of 5alb"achs "or;, see 'e"is +. *osers Introduction to (n $ollective Memory .1997/, and, for a refinement and elaboration of the conce t and im lications of collective memory, see @ames 4entress and *hris &ic;hams Social Memory .1997/. B. In the course his "ide-ranging and informative study of "the relations bet"een history and memory," 'e Doff not only sees memory, "P"Qhether mental, oral, or "rittenK PasQ the living source from "hich historians dra"" .,i/, but also notes its im ortance for individual and grou identityAthat is, for ""ho I thin; I am and "ho others thin; I am orK"ho "e thin; "e are and "ho others thin; "e are" .Merrill 7/. "P+Qt a

meta horical but im ortant level," "rites 'e Doff, "in the same "ay that amnesia is not merely a local disturbance of the individuals memory but causes more or less serious erturbations in his ersonality, the absence, or voluntary or involuntary loss, of collective memory among eo les and nations can cause serious roblems of collective identity" .BC/ (. Les Lieu' de m+moire .The Sites of Memory/ is the title of several volumes edited or "ritten by Eora in the nineteen eighties that e,amine the monuments, holidays, and other nodal oints .including historical ersonages such as @oan of +rc/ that have hel ed the citi8ens of ostrevolutionary 4rance to achieve a sense of national identity. In *anada, such lieu' or sites include, at the national level, the ma le leaf flag, "O *anada," #ominion .*anada/ #ay, the 0.*.M.:., the *.:.0., the Drou of 3evenK.and, at the rovincial and local levels, but "ith some national im act, $vangeline, the 1luenose, 1onhomme *arnaval, 'aura 3ecord, +nne of Dreen Dables, the 0oc;ies, 5aida carvingsK. +lmost needless to say, many of Tuebecs lieu' de m+moire serve to cement the TuRbRcois rather than the *anadian sense of identity. !he Eational 4ilm 1oard documentary, Evan!eline,s -uest .199(/ is an engaging treatment of the evolution of 5enry &ads"orth 'ongfello"s heroine

into a local and, to an e,tent, national icon .see also $ssay ?- 'iterary 3ites and *ultural :ro erties/. In National %reams& Myth, Memory, and $anadian .istory .199)/, #aniel 4rancis rovides rovocative discussions of several of *anadas national "myths," including the *.:.0, the 0.*.M.:., and "the Eorth." ). +mong the many merits of 0oses boo; are its lucid e, ositions of the contributions of t"o immigrants to *anada, the Montreal sychologist #onald 5ebb and the Montreal neurosurgeon &ilder :enfield, to the sciences of memory .see 1C>, 1B>-B1/. 5imself a distinguished memory researcher, 0ose observes that in the form of "hebb syna ses" and "hebbian rules of association," the hy otheses laid out by 5ebb in The (r!ani/ation of *ehavior .1949/ "have becomeK the ra" materials for modellers and theorists of memory ever since his boo; a eared" .1BC/. .3ee The (r!ani/ation of *ehavior 17-1C for 5ebbs conce tion of the "memory" or "mnemonic trace" as a "structural change in s ecific neural cells" that constitutes the "basis of memory" and "the basis of learning."/ &hile 0oses rimary interest lies in the "or;ings of " ersonal memory" .)/, he fre<uently touches u on "collective memory," "hich, he concludes, creates "a certain ty e of social cohesion and vie" oint about the "orld and ho" "e could and

should live in it" .C7)/. In addition to "servPingQ ur oses that transcend the individual" and ""elding together human societies by im osing shared understandings, inter retations, ideologies," collective memories are for 0ose "the means "hereby "e remember the ast, our history" and, thus, "they both guide our resent actions and sha e our futures" .C7)/. ?. In addition to 4reuds seminal essay, "Mourning and Melancholia" .191)/, see Eicolas +braham and MariU !oro;s The olf Man,s Ma!ic ord& a $ryptonomy .19)(6 trans. 19?(/ and the introductory essay by @ac<ues #errida, "4ore"ord- "ors- the +nglish &ords of Eicolas +braham and MariU !oro;." 9. In addition to roviding an authoritative discussion of the use of architectural laces and images as rom ts to recall from classical times to the 0enaissance and beyond, Latess The #rt of Memory .19((/ oints generally to"ards the interde endence of lace and remembrance- a articular lace is most li;ely to rom t memories and to be memorable "hen it has an historical or ersonal associationA "hat 5enri 'efebvre describes in The Production of Space .19)46 trans. 1991/ as "an affective ;ernel or centre" rovided by a "sense of "hat ha ened" there .47, C)/.

1>. "$ isodic memory receives and stores information about tem orally dated e isodes or events, and tem oral-s atial relations among these events" and "PsQemantic memory is the memory necessary for the use of language. It is a mental thesaurus, organi8ed ;no"ledge a erson ossesses about "ords and other verbal symbols, their meanings and referents, about relations among them, and about rules, formulas, and algorithms for the mani ulation of these symbols, conce ts, and relations" .!ulving C?B, C?(/. 11. +greeing "ith &illiams, 5obsba"m, and other Mar,ian analysts that "our e, eriences of the resent largely de end u on our ;no"ledge of the astKandKour images of the ast commonly serve to legitimate a resent social order," *onnerton argues in .o0 Societies Remember .19?9/ that "images of the ast and recollected ;no"ledge of the astKare conveyed and sustained by .more or less ritual/ erformances"A that is, by ritualistic and commemorative ceremonies that "automatically im lPyQ continuity "ith the ast," "hich "dra"Kthe attention ofK artici ants to ob=ects of thought and feelingKPthatQ they hold to be of s ecial significance," and "hich, therefore, " lay a significant role in the sha ing of communal memory"

and identity .C-4, 4B, 44, 4?/.

17. &hile 5ac;ing tends to underestimate the im ortance of modernity, articularly urbani8ation, in directing the attention of nineteenth-century "riters, scientists, and hiloso hers to"ards issues of memory and identity, his Re0ritin! the Soul& Multiple Personality and the Sciences of Memory .199B/ rovides a brilliantly illuminating analysis of the emergence of the modern sciences of memory in 4rance in the years .1?)41??(/ follo"ing the trauma of the 4ranco-:russian &ar. +ccording to 5ac;ing, a ma=or cause of the interest in memory in the late nineteenth century .and, erha s, still today/ "as the emergence of a "scientific "orld vie"" that sought to re lace the soul as the constitutive element in the mind and body "ith a faculty amenable to research- "PiQnstead of studying a unitary moi"Aa "transcendental, meta hysical or s iritual self or ego"Ascientists and hiloso hers "should study memory" and "forgetting" .amnesia/ as the rinci al constituent of the ersonality .1(C, 7>?/. 1C. "PMQemory is es ecially im ortant to anyone "ho cares about change," "rites Dreene in "4eminist 4iction and the %ses of Memory" .1991/, "for forgetting dooms us to

re etition" .797/. 3ee also Lates C(?(9 on the transformation of mnemonics during the 0enaissance from "a method of memorising the encyclo aedia of ;no"ledge, of reflecting the "orld in memory, to an aid for investigating the encyclo aedia and the "orld "ith the ob=ect of discovering ne" ;no"ledge." 14. !he focal oint of 1artletts discussion here is 5alb"achs Les $adres sociau' de la m+moire .197B/. "&hether PaQ social grou has a mental life over and above that of its individual members is a matter for s eculation and belief," concludes 1artlett6 "PtQhat the organised grou functions in a uni<ue and unitary manner in determining and directing the mental lives of its individual members is a matter of certainty and of fact" .C>>/.
15. Eumerous

reasons have been advanced for the near obsession "ith memory in $uro e and Eorth +merica in recent years, including the im ending end of the millennium, the disa earance of s ecies and environments, the ageing of the ost&ar generation, the Modern re=ection of the ast, and the <uality of contem orary leisure. 3ee, for e,am le, Deorge 'i sit8, Time Passa!es& $ollective Memory and #merican $ulture .199>/, +ndreas 5uyssen, T0ili!ht Memories&

Mar1in! Time in a $ulture of #mnesia .199B/, Michael 3. 0oths The Ironist,s $a!e& Memory, Trauma, and the $onstruction of .istory .199B/ and #avid 'o"enthal, The .erita!e $rusade and the Spoils of .istory .199(/.

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