Abstract
This essay proposes a critical phenomenology of the ontological, social, ethical, and political dimensions of collective memory. At an ontological level, the site of collective memory is not intentional consciousness but rather the lifeworld itself, understood as a historically sedimented context for meaning and mattering. The social dimension of collective memory is structured around an antagonism between hegemonic public memory and insurgent countermemory. The ethical dimension issues a command to anyone to listen and respond to the countermemory of the oppressed. And the political dimension of collective memory asks us to commit to building a world that refuses to repeat past oppression; it calls for the reclamation and (re)invention of a collective procedural memory of how to care for a common world. This analysis of collective memory unfolds in the context of a proposed memorial garden on the grounds of Canada's first prison for women, which is in the process of being redeveloped into luxury condominiums.
Published Version
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