Free DownloadMemory Lane: The Perfectly Imperfect Ways We Remember by Ciara Greene, Gillian Murphy
English | March 4, 2025 | ISBN: 0691257094 | 248 pages | PDF | 9.26 Mb
An illuminating look at the adaptive nature of our memories-and how their flexibility and fallibility help us survive and thrive
Free DownloadKevin G. Grove, "Augustine on Memory "
English | ISBN: 0197587216 | 2021 | 278 pages | EPUB | 1280 KB
Augustine of Hippo, indisputably one of the most important figures for the study of memory, is credited with establishing memory as the inner source of selfhood and locus of the search for God. Yet, those who study memory in Augustine have never before taken into account his preaching. His sermons are the sources of memory’s greatest development for Augustine. In Augustine’s preaching, especially on the Psalms, the interior gives way to communal exterior. Both the self and search for God are re-established in a shared Christological identity and the communal labors of remembering and forgetting.
Free DownloadAndreas Hamburger, "Trauma, Trust, and Memory"
English | ISBN: 1782204474 | 2018 | 302 pages | AZW3 | 8 MB
Trauma is one of the most important topics discussed throughout the clinical, social and cultural field. Social traumatization, as we meet it in the aftermath of genocide, war and persecution, is targeted at whole groups and thus affects the individual’s immediate holding environment, cutting it off from an important resilience factor; further on, social trauma is implemented in a societal context, thus involving the surrounding society in the traumatic process. Both conditions entail major consequences for the impact and prognosis of the resulting individual posttraumatic disorders as well as for the social and cultural consequences. The volume connects clinical and epidemiological studies on the sequelae of social trauma to reflections from social psychology and the humanities. Post-war and post-dictatorial societies are in particular marked by the effects of massive, large group traumatization, and if these are not acknowledged, explored, and mourned, the unprocessed cumulative trauma that has become deeply embedded in the collective memory leads to periodical reactivations. To address social trauma, an interdisciplinary approach is required.
Free DownloadMemory and Identity in the Narratives of Soledad Puértolas : Constructing the Past and the Self By Tamara L. Townsend
2014 | 164 Pages | ISBN: 1498500293 | EPUB | 1 MB
Narratives of contemporary Spanish writer Soledad Puértolas (1947-), inducted into the Real Academia Española in 2010, depict the psychological struggles of the individual in postmodern democratic European society. Puértolas’s realist style emphasizes storytelling and character portrayal, and her urban middle-class characters seek satisfying interactions with others and a sense of purpose. Memory aids characters in their quest for meaning and identity, and their use of memory reveals their self-perception and outlook on life. This book maps four ways in which Puértolas’s narratives use memory to approach the fundamental problem of the individual’s search for purpose and identity. Some characters are burdened by memory in certain texts, especially Días del Arenal (1992) and Burdeos (1986). Reflection upon a painful self-defining memory affects their present mood and behavior. For some, this burden causes them to withdraw or to act irresponsibly; others accept and overcome the scars of the past. A second type of character takes an escapist approach to memory, as seen in Queda la noche (1989). Their nostalgic retreat indicates a restless dissatisfaction with the present. In a third type of memory, a secondary character provides the organizing force behind a protagonist’s reminiscences, often an extroverted foil to highlight the protagonist’s introspective nature. Memory of the relationship motivates the protagonist to mentally order his or her own life through the life review process; Una vida inesperada (1997) and La señora Berg (1998) provide examples. Finally, in the amnesic mode, Puértolas departs from realism to experiment with different forms of amnesia, as in La rosa de plata (1999) and Si al atardecer llegara el mensajero (1995). Memory loss highlights the centrality of memory to personhood and identity, while at the same time it draws attention to the inadequacy of memory to explain the totality of existence.
Free DownloadFigures of Memory : From the Muses to Eighteenth-Century British Aesthetics By Zsolt Komaromy
2011 | 178 Pages | ISBN: 1611480442 | EPUB | 1 MB
Zsolt Komáromy’s Figures of Memory: From the Muses to Eighteenth-Century British Aesthetics effects a rapprochement between memory studies and eighteenth-century British aesthetics. It argues that the assessment of memory in the history of aesthetics and criticism has been determined by the ideological import of the creative imagination, based on the dichotomies of imitative versus creative or reproductive versus productive mental and artistic procedures. The legacy of such an opposition can still be felt in the way the literary relevance of memory is based on either viewing it as a representational (reproductive, imitative) power that is a counterterm to the creative sense of the imagination, or as a constructive (productive, creative) power that is assimilated by the creative imagination. The notion of memory, however, harbors problems that unsettle such dichotomies. This book does the timely work of employing insights offered by memory studies in reconsidering memory in the history of aesthetics: it suggests that memory’s literary relevance is explained precisely by the problems that make it resistant to the reproductive-productive opposition. These problems are explored through various "figures" representing senses of memory, such as the Muses, or metaphors for memory in philosophical and critical discourse. Tracing figures of memory from the Muses through Plato and Descartes to works by Pope, Addison, Gerard and Kames, Komáromy reveals an undercurrent of thought in eighteenth-century British aesthetics that questions memory’s nominal opposition to the imagination , and that exploits memory’s simultaneously reproductive and constructive nature in the emerging theory of the imagination. By thus claiming that the tradition of memory’s literary relevance is not marginalized but in fact perpetuated in eighteenth-century British critical thought, Figures of Memory gives a powerful new perspective on the history of memory in aesthetics and criticism. A theoretical work with claims for historical generalization, Figures of Memory will appeal to those interested in the history of aesthetics and criticism, in memory studies, in literary theory, to students of literature and memory, of literature and psychology, and to scholars of the eighteenth century with theoretical interests.
Free DownloadShape Memory Alloys in Civil Engineering (The Materials Research Society Series) by Bassem Andrawes
English | September 18, 2024 | ISBN: 3031680006 | 196 pages | MOBI | 17 Mb
This book presents a new class of metallic materials, called shape memory alloys (SMAs), as emerging materials for civil engineering applications. These materials have been used for decades in high-end fields like the aerospace and biomedical fields, and possess extraordinary properties that have attracted the attention of civil engineering researchers and practitioners for over 25 years. In this volume, based on 20 years of research findings, the author describes how SMAs started to find their way into practical applications in civil engineering. And that, like any metal, SMAs are produced in any shape, size, or form including wire, bar, and sheet, but unlike other metals, SMAs exhibit a unique ability to recover their original shape/size after being excessively deformed. Given the demand for sustainability and resilience in civil engineering applications, this book is ideal for civil engineering practitioners and materials researchers concerned with building materials and civil infrastructure.
