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Memory-work: A critique

Glenda Koutroulis
La Trobe University, Bundoora VIC

Abstract

The method memory-work was first developed by Frigga Haug (1987) in a study of female sexualisation. The theoretical origins of memory-work grew out of a resistance to the dominant cultural ideologies which rendered women largely invisible in the public domain through exclusion and subjugation. The theoretical foundations framing the method are used to explain 'the process, whereby women, as subjects within culture, are 'made'' (Haug 1987: 14).

The aim of the research by Haug and her colleagues was essentially, to understand the social construction of individual identity. In so doing, they set out to:

investigate the organisation of bodily activities; the ways in which the body itself and the feelings in and around it have arisen historically; and the ways in which this relates to our insertion into society as a whole (Haug 1987: 55).

Haug's method is a complex interrelatedness of theory, method and data. 'The strength of Haug's method is that it is integral to her theory of socialisation ...how we become ourselves and the part we play in that construction' (Kippax 1990: 93).

Haug begins with the premise that experiences of life contain contradictions, and as social relations stand today, particularly for women. During the process of socialisation, life's events are restructured or dealt with in a way that minimises the contradictions, making way for social action but at the same time distorting reality by a variety of mechanisms. Life for women becomes a series of compromises in an attempt to find meaning and fulfilment within a given social space.

Haug's (1987) discussion implicitly portrays women as victims of a repressive social environment. Haug perceives women to be players in the shaping and reinforcing of those same social structures in which they are imprisoned, and argues that in having actively participated in becoming what we are (subjectified), we can therefore change what we are. Thus, memory-work becomes a vehicle for bringing about desired change.

Having participated in the formation of our own identity, what becomes of interest in Haug's view, is the potential for liberation. She argues that memory-work 'must be seen as an intervention into existing practices ...[and] Our intervention is itself an act of liberation' (Haug 1987: 35).

Memory-work, evolved as a way to bridge the gap between theory and practice:

begins with the particular memories of individual people, memories which they take to be their own personal stories, which belong to them, are of them and which signify who they are. The-N, are central to their self, their subjectivity (Davies 1990: 1).

Accuracy of memories is not relevant; 'It is the process of construction that is important, what is remembered and in what form' (Kippax 1990: 97). The method is an unfolding process which illuminates the meanings attached to the memories of individuals as they are understood by those who participated in them at the time, and as understood now, with the passage of time (Kippax 1990).

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