Ebook: Committing the future to memory: history, experience, trauma

Narrative life span, in the wake : Benjamin and Arendt -- Memory in theory : the childhood memories of John Locke (persons, parrots) -- Mourning memory : the "end" of art or, reading (in) the spirit of Hegel -- Speculating on the past, the impact of the present : Hegel and his time(s) -- In lieu of a last word : Maurice Blanchot and the future of memory (today).;This title examines canonical philosophies of history, memory and identity in the context of contemporary interest in finitude and the temporalities of trauma. Engaging texts spanning multiple genres and several centuries - from John Locke to Maurice Blanchot, from Hegel to Benjamin - Clift combines close readings with conceptual generalization to bring those works together as sites where the pressure to think about the impact of history on individual and collective identities is at its highest.