Misremembering

full name / name of organization: 
Ameer Sohrawardy, Rutgers University
contact email: 

This is a collection of essays that will revolve around the idea of misremembering in literature. A diversity of approaches are welcome (eg: historicist, cognitive science, theories of temporality, narrative theory, animal studies.)

Several questions will guide the collection: What does it mean to 'misremember'? What does the 'mis' of 'misremembering' refer to? Something 'not remembered'? Something re-membered differently than the 'original' memory? What are the ontologies of misremembering?

Is misremembering always accidental? Is it 'anachronistic,' as we've currently understood the word (eg: de Grazia, Tribble.) If the cognitive sciences teach us that we must re-arrange old memories in order to accommodate new ones, is misremembering a stage in this transition?

If post-Enlightenment thinking teaches us that our memories make us distinctly human, how does misremembering shape our perception of what it means to be human? Can we detect different cognitive perceptions of 'the human,' when literary animals misremember (especially from the pre-Enlightenment period)?

In our current age, when our memories are digitally stored, does misremembering mean something different than it did in earlier ages?

Abstracts of 250-300 words may be emailed to ameersoh@rci.rutgers.edu. Abstract deadline is December 31st, 2015.