We are always the posthumous life of others: a map for a pro-memory

Abstract

This issue proposes the concept of ‘pro-memory’ as a variation of ‘post-memory’, shifting the focus from the relationship with the past to the impact of projection - of the self, of space and of the present — on the constitution of memory. Instead of recovering indirect experiences, pro-memory describes the movement of trying to deal with the gaps, silences and absences of the archive and memory, opening up space for narratives that were previously invisible. The idea of ‘over-memory’, understood as addition or excess, collaborates with this notion and reinforces the way in which other people's memories interfere in the construction of our own. By inaugurating the concept of pro-memory and exploring the tools it calls upon, this dossier proposes a critical debate on new ways of narrating, remembering and reinscribing the past in the present, in the belief that innovative methodologies and practices can emerge from this endeavour to investigate and work with memory and the archive and their blind spots.