Walter BenjaminMemory is not an instrument for exploring the past but its theatre. It is the medium of past experience, as the ground is the medium in which dead cities lie interred.
About This Quote
In his essay, "The theatre of memory," Michel de Montaigne speaks of the theatre of memory, the medium in which we experience the past. To recall a memory in its entirety is to experience a play in a full production, a re-enactment. The memories that we have are not just individual events but memories that have been designed to be experienced as plays. We have constructed our memories to be dramatic and influential in shaping our lives. In this sense, memory is not an instrument for exploring the past, but rather it is a medium through which we experience it.
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