The Future Imperfect: Memoir and the Family Photograph

Abstract

In ‘The Future Imperfect’ Petra Rau reflects on the meaning of her mother’s narrowly averted attempt to discard the family photo albums, and on the function of the photo album as a retroactive personal narrative. The difficulty of reading family photographs that precede one’s own experience and recollection is the subject of the second part, an excerpt from the as yet unpublished family memoir Hinterland.