Memory and experience: the domestication of the time in history

Abstract

To remember and to forget are two different human acts forming one of the most fundamental procedures of knowledge: historical consciousness. To remember, to forget and to forgive are constitutive moments of the social cohesion of experienced time – say: of history. The ways memories are established represent an important point for the historical research, like an enigma to be solved. Registering memories, registering testimonies are phaenomena of a certain intentionality of acting individuals, transposed to the way history is the interpreted time of the human acts. The interpretation of memories by the historical consciousness into history is the main form individuals and societies define and locate themselves in time.