“The return of the repressed: The social/political dynamics of remembering and forgetting”
Do societies have a memory just like the individuals? One hundred and thirty-five years ago, at a conference in Sorbonne, Ernest Renan was stating that one of the necessary elements in the creation of a nation was forgetting and even historical error. Forgetting defeats and remembering victories. Ninety-five years later, in 1977, in an address titled Machiavelli’s Solitude delivered at the Association Française de Science Politique in Paris, Louis Althusser was rendering a psychoanalytical reading of political theory through the concept of unheimlichkeit, which implied the return of the repressed. This talk will also attempt to pursue this perspective in examining the phases of the formation of collective memory through the points of intersection of sociology, history, psychoanalysis and philosophy.
Nazlı Ökten graduated from the Department of Sociology at Boğaziçi University in 1992, and went on to pursue a master's degree in Political Sociology at the University of Paris 1 Sorbonne. She has started teaching at Galatasaray University in 1995 and continues working there for 22 years. She also works as a researcher at the Center for Social Research of the same university. She has a number of articles published in Turkish, French and English in the field of social sciences, as well as various translations concerning the same field of study. Between 1992 and 2002, she participated in publishing the periodical Hayalet Gemi together with her friends, and produced programs on Açık Radyo. She currently serves on the editorial board of Cogito magazine. Since having her article published in the book, Hatırladıkları ve Unuttuklarıyla Türkiye’nin Toplumsal Hafızası (İletişim, 2006) Ökten has been focusing on the subject of collective memory, and continuing her work along the axis of politics/society/imagination.
The event is free of charge.
Invitations available from the Akbank Sanat ticket office on the event day, one hour before the event begins.