Tiempo, memoria e identidad personal

Abstract

In his analysis of the oral and written narratives by the former children evacuated to the Soviet Union during the Spanish Civil War, the author reflects on the manner in which time, memory and personal identity interrelate in these accounts. He proposes a sociological approach to the subject, comparatively more independent than that of history or psychology. His analysis reveals that the subjective dynamics that contextualizes the discourses of these people —the manner in which they talk about the past, the present, the future, life and so forth— defines these discourses in terms not so much of coherence or attempt of achievement of a synthetic unity, a well-structured narrative drawn from an individual remembrance of the past, as of disruptions, contradictions and aporias that make the narratives disorganized and uneven—which is characteristic of the present social and subjective conditions of these former children.