Mnemology: Towards an Ontology of Memory in Russian Philosophy and Literature

• In Event: Intersections of Philosophy and Literature: Approaches to the Concept of Memory

Abstract

Henri Bergson in his "Matter and Memory" (1896) argues that the past exists in two forms: motor mechanisms and independent memories. Despite the immense popularity of Henri Bergson in Russia at the turn of the century, the concept of memory has rarely been the focus of a systematic study in Russian philosophical thought. One of the examples of this explicit interest is the unfinished treatise "Mnemology" by Olga Schor (penname: Olga Deschartes, 1894 – 1978), an art historian and a companion of Vyacheslav Ivanov. Schor attempts to create a “mnemology”, or a systematic philosophy of memory, centered around her specific mystical understanding of the ontology of memory. This paper explores implications of such an approach in a wider context of a possible ontology of memory through autobiographical philosophical and literary works, including Sergei Bulgakov’s "From the Memory of the Heart", Vladimir Nabokov’s "Other Shores", also known in its English rendition "Speak, Memory", Valentin Kataev’s "My Diamond Crown", and Yuri Trifonov’s "House Upside Down".

Author

• Olga Lyanda-Geller, Purdue U