Individual, Collective, Time and History in Reminiscence

Authors

• Pirjo Korkiakangas, Ph.D. University of Jyväskylä

Keywords:

individual memory, collective memory, remembrance

Abstract

Reminiscence is an essential part of human life, it is one way to recollect the past which has been kept in our memory, and to strengthen our identity. It is mostly so that reminiscence constructs some kind of a chronological continuance of our life, and when we recollect it we feel that it is real and has as such been gone through. How does this kind of reminisced reality arise and what kind of elements can be discerned in it? Did things really happen the way we recollect them? In my article I deal with the ways to analyse reminisce by means of and from the perspective of ethnological research, also at the same time l am seeking support in psychological memory research.