“What Memory Wants from Me”: Contemporary Female Writers on the Calling to Remember
Abstract
This dissertation explores the intersections of transnational memory studies and feminist autobiographical writing through the works of Maria Stepanova, Annie Ernaux, and Lea Ypi. It argues that contemporary literature, especially that written by women, provides innovative frameworks for understanding identity, memory, and the sociopolitical context of our time. By examining how these authors intertwine personal and collective histories, the study highlights the shift in memory studies from monumental, nation-centered history to transnational, mobile memory modalities. I have pinpointed three themes to which these authors significantly contribute within the feminist and political discourse on memory: the relationship between gender and memory, the commodification and consumerism of memory and its artifacts, and the transnational and transcultural aspects of memory. Through their works, Stepanova, Ernaux, and Ypi demonstrate that remembering is not merely a passive reflection but an active engagement with the past, shaping our understanding of the present and influencing society’s very ability to conceptualize narratives about the future. In this project, I argue that these texts represent a new wave in autobiographical writing that intertwines personal memories with broader societal and political landscapes, where the subjective is always deeply linked with the collective, with the collective itself being a category often needing redefinition. In this vein, this project also analyzes how these writers place the neoliberal individual into the framework of societal narratives about the past.