Forgiven But Not Forgotten or the Zero Degree of Life Itself? Some Philosophical Reflections on the Archive, Witness and Politics of Memory

Human societies at various historical epochs have invented different techniques of replicating, retaining and continuing memories. The archive, as a kind of mnemonic technique, is a manifestation of the fact that memory always stands as the site of contestation for discourses, disciplines, and institutions; accordingly, personal memory may be sutured to or conflicting with public, collective memory. This paper explores the following major research questions: Is the contemporary era witnessing an "archive fever" or "mania for memorization"? Have the causes of liberating oppressed/repressed memories, atoning victims, and implementing justice been elevated to the status of ethical imperatives? How are forgetting and remembering, oppression and liberation, forgiveness and resentment, trauma and curing implicated with each other in the ontological, political-ethical, and techno-cultural dimensions? This paper seeks to answer these questions in light of the thought of Stiegler, Foucault, Ricoeur, Derrida and Agamben.