ABSTRACT

This article explores transgenerational dynamics of memory in the individual and collective contexts in contemporary South Africa. By engaging in a conversation informed by psychoanalytic theory between the archive of the public hearings of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission and narratives of the younger generation of black South Africans, the article offers a conceptual framework for how transgenerational transmission of memory in the lives of descendants of generations of victims of prolonged traumatic subjugation might be explained. A tri-directional perspective in which memory crosses and re-crosses past, present and future temporalities is proposed, and the movement and translation of memory between and across these temporalities are explained and conceptualised as a “triadic” view of memory.

摘要

本文探讨了当代南非个人和集体背景下记忆的跨代动态。通过在真相与和解委员会的公开听证会档案与南非年轻一代黑人的叙述之间进行精神分析理论的对话，本文提供了一个概念框架，说明记忆如何在后代的生活中代代相传也许可以解释长期遭受创伤的几代受害者。提出了记忆跨越和重新跨越过去、现在和未来时间性的三向视角，记忆在这些时间性之间和之间的移动和翻译被解释和概念化为记忆的“三元”观点。