Memory, history and time: the plots of the contemporary world

Abstract

This text is dedicated to analyzing the relations between memory, history and time from the second half of the 20th century onwards, based on Western society in general. To this end, the text is structured as follows: first, we approach the temporality typical of modernity, characterized by progress, by the "acceleration of time" and by utopias; then, we analyze the temporality that emerged from the 1950s, marked, among other things, by the “memory boom” and preservation practices; finally, we analyze the relationship between memory and the dizzying technological evolution of the last two decades, especially with regard to the ability to generate and archive an infinite amount of data and information.