Introduction: Producing Memory

Abstract

We find ourselves in a time where our daily lives are inundated with news stories and narratives, on-and offline, wherever we turn. These often competing narratives range from localized cultural debates to severe political conflicts. But narratives are, of course, defined by who tells them. No portrayal of an issue can be entirely neutral, and recognizing the motivations and biases behind the narratives presented to us is an increasingly important skill in a time when more people than ever before have the ability to broadcast their own narrative to the world. At the same time, storytelling and the documentation of memory can be a powerful way to reframe the dominant narrative that persists about a topic or about oneself. Take the example of Chanel Miller, who writes in her autobiographical novel Know My Name : ‘My name is Chanel. I am a victim, I have no qualms with this word, only with the idea that it is all that I am. However, I am not Brock Turner’s victim . I am not his anything. I don’t belong to him’ (Miller 2019, viii). In doing so, Miller demands that the framing of herself only in relation to Turner, as occurred throughout the court case and ensuing media coverage, be challenged in a manner that acknowledges her personhood and autonomy. By taking control of the narrative, her depiction of events grew to become the defining one, which had far-reaching consequences: the judge that gave Turner a mild sentencing was suspended and the safety mechanisms in place at Stanford University, where the assault took place, were reevaluated. Documenting and spreading one’s own experiences can not only make it possible to reframe and add nuance to the popular narrative, but it can also beget accountability, as long as the world listens.