Future Memory: Intersections of Memory, Technology, and Narrative in Literature and Film Across Time

This seminar explores the concept of “future memory” in literature and film, examining how memory, trauma, and technology intersect to shape human cognition and narrative form. We consider works that challenge traditional notions of temporality and consciousness, and interrogate how memories influence identity—while speculating on how technological advancements may redefine lived experience.

Drawing on theoretical frameworks from trauma studies, including Cathy Caruth’s and Marianne Hirsch’s work on postmemory, we also engage with Jean Baudrillard’s concepts of simulation and hyperreality, and Donna Haraway’s cyborg theory to explore the porous boundaries between human and machine memory. Our investigation seeks to uncover how narratives throughout history have grappled with the malleability of memory and how they imagine its future in an age of rapid technological change.

Literary examples include Marcel Proust’s In Search of Lost Time on involuntary memory; Jorge Luis Borges’ Funes the Memorious and Virginia Woolf’s Mrs. Dalloway, which employ stream-of-consciousness techniques to reflect memory’s fluidity. Contemporary works that explore memory manipulation and identity reconfiguration in speculative futures include Yevgeny Zamyatin’s We, examining the erasure of individuality in a totalitarian regime; Margaret Atwood’s The Handmaid’s Tale and MaddAddam trilogy, which investigate the suppression of personal history and genetic engineering; and Philip K. Dick’s We Can Remember It for You Wholesale alongside William Gibson’s Neuromancer, both of which address technologically altered memory.

Cinematic representations—such as Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind and Inception—further probe the malleability of memory and its entanglement with consciousness.

We welcome submissions that raise critical questions about the nature of identity, the reliability of memory, and the ethical implications of memory manipulation in technologically advanced societies. This panel invites diverse perspectives on the evolving concept of "future memory."