The history of oblivion

Abstract

This article presents memory as a counterpart of oblivion. The act of forgetting is neither random nor universal. It is regulated in each state of society. Collective memory can be studied, therefore, as a “collective administration” of oblivion. An outline of this history takes as a starting point the question of how societies manage what they forget, with the objective of apprehending the means used by societies to produce or impose oblivion, to regulate it, to adapt to it, or to deny it. It is argued that some societies operate with amnesia, repression, erasure, and obliteration of the past. There are different ways in which societies seek to establish forgetfulness, but they also develop techniques against forgetfulness. The article aims to prove that the cultures of societies can be analyzed and periodized in terms of regimes of memorable that are, in fact, regimes of erasure and oblivion.