Reviews of Remembering: A phenomenological study: Reply by Edward S. Casey.

The Work of Memory: embodiment, materiality and home in Jeanne Bouvier's autobiographical writings

“…Casey has further argued that the notion of 'body memory' raises questions around how we remember 'by, in and through the body', but while it makes connections with memories of the body 'as the accusative object of our awareness', the two should not be conflated. 58 Although Casey has noted that this difference between 'body memory' and 'memory of the body' is 'blurring and difficult to discern', 59 what I suggest is that this difference is only a heuristic one-helpful in terms of analysisbut untenable otherwise. Bouvier's memoir vividly shows that it is through entanglements and 'intra-actions' 60 between the worker's body, which both remembers and is remembered that memories of work erupt, take shape and are narrativised through writing.…”

“…In this context the body becomes 'a material condition of possibility for remembering.' 54 Bouvier's body is indeed central in her memory work: we meet and drift away with the body of the child who climbs trees, despises soup, tends the cows, finds lentils exotic and loathes sewing. 55 Moreover we tremble and shake with her while her mother wakes her up:…”

“…As Casey has pithily put it: 'memory of place implaces us and thus empowers us: gives us space to be.' 70 It is no wonder then that throughout her Mémoires, Bouvier's memories of her homeland, Dauphiné inspire and shape the way she writes about her working life, while the memory of her home becomes an anchoring point in the process of remembering and imagining, 'one of the greatest powers of integration for the thoughts, memories and dreams of mankind', according to Bachelard. 71 Indeed, the fact that unlike the other sections in the memoir, Bouvier recounts the moment of leaving in the present tense is particularly striking:…”

“…In this context, places create a plane of consistency, continuity and orientation for our lives and therefore place memory determines our place in the world, while remembering is an act of re-experiencing, but also of re-implacing, that is re-experiencing past places, Casey has aptly suggested. 78 What we therefore have in the existing literature around the memory of work is 'the factory' as a mnemonic site par excellence: here there is a particular focus on questions around the preservation of deserted factories and industrial sites as monuments of the memory of work that is fading away. In this light, it is no wonder that industrial archaeology and urban and museum studies are important disciplinary areas in the newly emerging field of the memory of work.…”

“…When we consider place memories we should conceptualise them in a two-fold way: as memories of a given place and memories occurring in that place, Casey notes. 77 Again, the two modes are interrelated and cannot be disentangled, but they are useful in making sense of the salience of gender. We remember places more easily: no matter how mobile we are, the geography of our past can be charted and remembered in a more or less tangible way, while the times or moments of our lives are much more difficult to be seized, frozen and/or remembered.…”