Adolescent Memory, Comics Creation, and Psychoanalytic Remembering in Teacher Education

• In Event: Remaking Curriculum Through Psychic Confrontations: On Curiosity, Imagination, and (Re)Memory

Abstract

In this paper, I describe a psychoanalytically framed, anti-mimetic mode of remembering called adolescent anamnesis, in which memories of adolescence are framed as creative acts and uncertain dialogue between the adult remembering and the persistence of their adolescent emotions. Though I briefly discuss the Platonic roots of anamnesis and its conceptual links to psychoanalytic theory, I also describe my reasons for bringing this method of remembering to teacher education. By referring to a number of short comics created by undergraduate students, I propose a praxis of adolescent anamnesis as a means of helping my students feel their way into the emotional recapitulations of teaching.

Author

• David Lewkowich, University of Alberta