91福利

In cognitive science and psychology, 'vivid' memory is a recognised conceptual category, associated with particular sensory and emotional qualities. Can this category be usefully adopted by historians? The study of early modern memory has flourished in recent years, but scholars have typically explored the collective and social dimensions of memory over and above the individual experience of remembering. However, early modern natural philosophers did theorise about how bodies and souls cooperated to produce compelling mental images, while theologians discussed how the Holy Spirit could make the naturally 'dead' memory operate 'lively and powerfully'. Life-writers, meanwhile, described their formative experiences in ways that parallel both classical rhetorical models for lively narrative, and modern-day psychological templates for vivid memory. An interdisciplinary analysis of early modern memory accounts may open up new avenues for debate, and guide us towards a richer understanding of how memory was felt and understood.