Memory and identity according to Candau

Abstract

Identity as a mental and social state and memory as an individual faculty and a set of collective representations compose the general focus of this work. The author collaborates for the study of relations between individual and collective memories. He decomposes the concept of memory in three levels: protomemory, evocation memory and metamemory, and distinguishes strong from weak memories. The strong memory is the one that structures identity and that is able to organize sense. The memory weakness is due to the gradual transformation of the groups and gradual dilution of their memory social frames.