Historical Memory and Narrative: Ecological Contexts (Reflections on Book)

Abstract

The article reflects on I.O. Shchedrina’s book Historical Memory and Nar­rative: Ecological Contexts. This monograph falls within the current trend of turning ecology into a universal interdisciplinary methodological principle. Significant for a modern person environment, its Umwelt, is understood by the author as a complex configuration of symbolic worlds and narratives. One of the most important tasks of ecology today, without solving which it is impossible to overcome the ecological crisis, is the formation of ecological consciousness. I.O. Shchedrina justifies the importance of nature saving not with the help of the usual rational natural-scientific approach, but through the emotional, personal, humanitarian sphere – through human memory, self-awareness, narrative, psychological context. In her analysis I.O. Shchedrina re­lies on a wide range of concepts and authors: from psychological interpreta­tions of self-consciousness (L.S. Vygotsky, R. Burns, St. Klein, J. Kihlstrom, V.V. Stolin and others) to the problem of historical and autobiographical narra­tive studies (D. Dennett, G. Genette, F. Lejeune). In I.O. Shchedrina’s concep­tion one can see development and reinterpretation of the ideas of N.F. Reymers and D.S. Likhachev about the ecology of the spirit and the ecology of culture, although these authors are not directly mentioned. By including the concepts of narrative and historical memory into the ecological discourse, I.O. Shched­rina makes a significant contribution to the development of the most important trend of post-non-classical science – the humanitarization of natural-scientific knowledge.