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The Literature History Theory research group, Durham University, is delighted to welcome Eelco Runia (Center for Metahistory, Groningen University).
On Thursday 16 February at 5.00 pm, Eelco Runia will give a lecture entitled 'Of Two Minds, or why the concept of dissociation might help us to understand the dynamics of memory'. Abstract pasted below. Venue: ER141, School of Modern Languages and Cultures, Elvet Riverside, Durham. All welcome.
OF TWO MINDS: ABSTRACT
In psychiatry 'pure doing', doing that not only isn't guided by consciousness but isn't even accompanied by it, is called 'dissociation'. In my talk I will use a text by Victor Hugo as a point of departure for demonstrating that some knowledge about the notion of dissociation is not only vital for understanding history but also for how we manage to do things that we didn't know we were capable of. I will argue that dissociation - 'being of two minds' - comes in two varieties: sometimes we 'know' more than our actions suggest, sometimes our actions 'know' more than we think we know. As far as history is concerned, the first variety ('knowing without fully doing') is operative in 'bubbles' like the recent subprime mortgage bubble. The second variety ('doing without fully knowing') is the state of mind in which we may embark upon what is really (and not just marginally) new. The second variety of dissociated action has a disturbing effect on memory: 'doing without fully knowing' inevitably results in 'knowing without fully remembering' - so in a sense it are precisely the groundbreaking actions that have made us into who we are that leave a blank in our memory.
EELCO RUNIA is chair of the Center for Metahistory at Groningen University. Among his books are De pathologie van de veldslag ('The Pathology of Battle. History and Historiography in Tolstoy's War and Peace', 1995), Waterloo Verdun Auschwitz, De liquidatie van het verleden ('The liquidation of the past', 1999) and two novels: Inkomend vuur ('Incoming Fire', 2003) and Breukvlak ('Fault Line', 2008). His current research explores the question of how humans energize their own evolution by habitually creating situations ('catastrophes', sublime historical events) that put a premium on mutations. Articles in English include: 'Presence' (2006), 'Spots of Time' (2006), 'Into Cleanness Leaping: The vertiginous urge to commit history' (2010) and 'Crossing the wires in the pleasure machine: Lenin, history and the emergence of historical discontinuity' (2010), all published in the journal History & Theory.
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Dr Caitríona Ní Dhúill
Department of German
School of Modern Languages and Cultures
Durham University
Elvet Riverside
New Elvet
Durham DH1 3JT
U.K.
Tel.: +44 191 334 3456
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