SOC461 Lecture Notes - Lecture 10: Involuntary Memory, Abstract Labour And Concrete Labour
13 Dec 2016
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Soc 461 – October 25, 2016 : Walter Benjamin
• Walter Benjamin (1892-9 takes Baudelaies aout of ua life as haateisti of
capitalist society more generally.
• Benjamin suggests that the rapid, constantly-changing experience of life in capitalist society risks
our psychological integrity and puts us in danger of losing the meaning of our experiences.
• What has modernity done to us?: What sort of experiences are capable of generating meaning?
How does meaning tie together memory and constitute the idiiduals self-image?
• Can we recreate maning?: What sort of experiences could we have that might stimulate our
ioluta eo? Could e eeate Pousts adelie?
1.The power of the past
• Why are memories so powerful?
o Our memories are how we understand who we are, and how we situate ourselves in the
world, as based on our experiences.
• What makes a memory significant?
o
• How interconnected are your memories?
1a. A Taste of Childhood
Voluntary Memory
• Memories of specific events, often unusual or non-routine.
• Cosists of fats, details, thigs e ko aout ou past.
• Can be recalled by intellectual effort, at will, by searching our mind.
Involuntary Memory
• Less specific memories: routines, regular events, general ways of acting.
• More general and holistic sense of being in a past moment.
• Cat e illed – though can be spurred by a scent, a taste, a sound.
1a. A Taste of Childhood cont.
• Bejai das o Mael Pousts aout of eo to distiguish etee epeiees that
have some deep personal significance compared to mere recall of empty facts.
• Proust suggests that voluntary memory – things we can recall at will – often seems to lack the
essee of a past epeiee.
o Eg. Whee ee ou o Tuesda th at p
o We at hoose to feel as though e ee tho ak to the past; these ojetiised
eoies dot feel uite ight.
1b. The power of shock
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Document Summary
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