RETHINKING AGENCY IN MEMORY: SPACE AND EMBODIMENT IN MEMORIES OF CHILD SEXUAL ABUSE

Abstract

Contemporary ‘forensic’ models of memory emphasise the need for continuity and stability in relation to self‐hood and identity and attention can be too readily focussed upon the ‘literal’ and ‘accurate’ recollections of past events. Such concerns, however, neglect the practical uses of remembering in specific contexts and moments in time. Attending to these practical uses of memory can enable a reading of the contradictory positions and ambivalences experienced by individuals aiming to make sense of a complex set of memories of child sexual abuse. Part of the reason these memories are experienced as highly complex is related to the ways in which such memories hold survivors accountable for not only the past, but present sexual actions, where management of choices take place. Drawing on Haaken's feminist transformative model of memory and Halbwach's ideas on group membership, we argue for a reworking of remembering by inviting an engagement with its relational, practical and collective qualities. Issues surrounding the organisation of social spaces in negotiating choices and agency, the localised contexts of remembering and the way in which the body is called on to manage these issues will form the basis of the analysis. Specific attention will also be given to how the past and present interrelate with regard to the management of adult survivor identities.