The Trace

This project takes as its starting point the results of the research carried out in the project "El concepto de la huella: delimitación, estudio y aplicación a la literatura reciente en lengua inglesa", financed in the period 01/01/10 to 31/12/12, with the reference code FFI2009-09242. Focusing on the field of recent studies on memory, history, and contemporary narrative, the present project revolves around the critical concept of “the trace”, which as we proved in our previous project, emerges as an effective tool for the analysis of the processes of historical revision and interdisciplinary dialogue characteristic of contemporary English literature.

The results of the research carried out in the previous project have led us to delve further into the theoretical study of the trace with the purpose of progressing in the study of this concept, and of its application to recent literature written in English, focusing on the quality of the trace as a physical and tangible object under the title [FFI2013-44154-P] “Nuevos parámetros críticos en torno al concepto de la huella y su aplicación a la literatura reciente en lengua inglesa”.

Now we aim at delving into the theoretical study of the trace that we began in our previous research, with the purpose of progressing in the study of this concept, and of its application to recent literature written in English, focusing on the quality of the trace as a physical and tangible object. This research into the materiality of the trace will be carried out along three main lines: on the one hand, the trace as an impression, as a material object crucial for the reactivation of memories, which connects with the so-called “Thing theory”, and with museum studies and phenomenology. On the other hand, we will analyse the intersection of the trace with food as a mnemonic object, and with illness and ageing in their relationship with the processes of memory. Finally, in the context of the recovery of the subject and the ethical turn in artistic production, as a visible trace, we will deepen into the implications of the conceptualisations of the trace by Paul Ricoeur and Emmanuel Levinas, suggested in the previous project. All this will allow us to deal with a key issue in the current literary and critical context, for which the trace, so our contention goes, plays a crucial role: the questioning of the validity of the postmodern paradigm, especially in terms of the changing conception of nostalgia in relation with the past and memory as tangible presences.