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  • About
  • The Global ETD Search service is a free service for researchers to find electronic theses and dissertations. This service is provided by the Networked Digital Library of Theses and Dissertations.
    Our metadata is collected from universities around the world. If you manage a university/consortium/country archive and want to be added, details can be found on the NDLTD website.
11

Articulable Humanity : Narrative Ethics in Nuruddin Farah's Trilogies / Att uttrycka det mänskliga : narrativ etik i Nuruddin Farah's trilogier

Härgestam Strandberg, Hilda January 2016 (has links)
Fokus för avhandlingen, Att uttrycka det mänskliga: narrativ etik i Nuruddin Farah’s trilogier, är de nio romaner publicerade mellan 1979 och 2011 som tillsammans utgör Nuruddin Farah’s tre trilogier: ”Variations on the Theme of an African Dictatorship,” bestående av Sweet and Sour Milk (1979), Sardines (1981), Close Sesame (1983); “Blood in the Sun,” bestående av Maps (1986), Gifts (1993), Secrets (1998); samt “Past Imperfect,” bestående av Links (2003), Knots (2007), Crossbones (2011). Tematiska och stilistiska skillnader till trots så är dessa trilogier och romaner märkbart sammanhängande i sitt fokus. De är inte bara tydligt förankrade i en somalisk verklighet som spänner över mer än tre decennier – en resa som inbegriper landets skifte från kommunisitstyre, via diktatur, till inbördeskrig, och 2010-talets version med islamistiskt styre och pirater som härjar kustregionen – men dessa romaner pekar genomgående bortom sin tydliga socio-politiska kontext mot djupt etiska, tid- och rumsoberoende frågeställningar: Hur förhåller sig individen till kollektivet? Vilket etiskt ansvar har jaget för den andre? Vad utgör grunden för människans gemensamma varande? Hur bevara sin mänsklighet under omänskliga levnadsförhållanden? Hur göra motstånd i en diktatur utan att bli en del i det maskineri av våld och tyranni man söker bekämpa? Trots det tydligt etiska anslaget så har dessa trilogier nästan uteslutande lästs utifrån sina politiska implikationer. Utan att undervärdera decennier av rikt och varierande kritiskt mottagande så har denna tendens till politiska läsningar ofta genererat förvånansvärt entydiga läsningar av verk kända för sin mångtydighet och komplexitet. Avhandlingen avser därför att påvisa djupet och bredden i Farah’s gestaltningar genom att tydligt belysa hur det etiska gestaltar sig på flera nivåer – tematiskt, berättartekniskt, i mötet mellan läsare och text, samt i föreställningar om författarens moraliska ansvar. Därutöver diskuteras även de etiska dimensionerna av litteraturkritik: vad innebär en etiskt hållen läsemetodik? Arbetets unika bidrag kan formuleras i fyra steg. För det första utgör avhandlingen det ända kända arbete – utöver Fiona F. Moola’s Reading Nuruddin Farah: The Individual, the Novel, and the Idea of Home (2014) – som inbegriper Farah’s alla trilogier, vilket möjliggör mer långtgående och genomgripande analyser än vad som hittills publicerats. Avhandlingens fokus på den senaste trilogin fyller dessutom en viktig lucka i det kritiska mottagandet av Farah’s romaner eftersom väldigt lite publicerats utöver recensioner. Förutom nya läsningar av Farah så utgör min emfas på det etiska i Farah’s etisk-politiska skrivande ett viktigt bidrag till det vidare fält av (afrikansk) (postkolonial) litteraturkritik där man ofta betonat det politiska över det etiska, snarare än att läst dessa två som oskiljaktiga entiteter. Trots att anledningarna till politiska läsningar av Farah’s trilogier kan härledas såväl till verkens starkt politiska nerv som författarens egna uttalanden i intervjuer och artiklar, så pekar privilegieringen av det politiska framför det etiska på en mer generell tendens inom postkolonial kritik att inrymma det etiska under det politiska. Trots att kopplingen mellan fiktion, politik och författaransvar inte kan avfärdas, hävdar jag i denna avhandling att ett ensidigt politisk angreppssätt hotar att såväl underskatta komplexiteten i romanernas gestaltningar, som att reducera konceptuellt vad författare som Farah faktiskt åstadkommer. För det andra så vidgar avhandlingen befintlig forskning kring det etiska i Farah’s romaner genom att inte endast fokusera på tematik och berättartekniska grepp, men också diskutera läsandet och skrivandet – det som i avhandlingen beskrivs som fyra sammanlänkande ”ethical moments of the told, the telling, the act of writing, the act of reading.” Utan att undervärdera tidgare kritiska läsningar så tycks många diskussioner kring Farah’s trilogier fokusera författarens centralitet på ett vis som emellanåt tar fokus från i övrigt tankeväckande läsningar av tematik och narrativa strategier. Min högst textcentrerade utgångspunkt visar som kontrast att läsningen av Farah’s trilogier genererar spörsmål som kräver ett mer holistiskt perspektiv, inte minst tydliga diskussioner kring den etiska dialog som uppstår i mötet mellan läsare och text. Förutom att bidra till befintlig forskning på Farah’s författarskap, så bidrar avhandlingens holistiska inställning till narrativ etik med fem sammanlänkade perspektiv till det vidare fältet av etisk litteraturkritik. Dels beror detta på det faktum att en sådan modell förutsätter användandet av multipla tolkningsmodeller; i mitt fall kontinental filosofi, postkolonial teori, samt narratologiska teorier kring läsande och mottagande. Denna interdisciplinära modell för narrativ etik är dock inte begränsad till min specifika sammansättning utan kan fungera som modell även för andra litteraturforskare, med alternativa kombinationer av tänkare och teoretiker. Till sist; trots att det inte varit ett uttalat mål från projektets början så har arbetet med det etiska i Farah’s trilogier generarat många funderingar kring den egna läsningen som efterhand lett till formulering av nya narratologiska perspektiv. Här utgör mötet mellan text och läsare en central del i avhandlingen. Genom att betona de etiska elementen i mötet mellan text och läsare närmar jag mig spörsmål som i förlängningen kan ses som byggstenar i en mera etiskt hållen läsemetodik. I stället för att tolka ”störande” element som exempel på estetiska brister, alternativt brister i författarens moraliska ansvarstagande (!) så menar jag att de aspekter som irriterar läsaren, försvårar eller rent av omöjliggör förståelse mycket väl kan vara de ting i texten som tvingar läsaren till en mera engagerad och därmed etiskt mer välgrundad läsning. Att läsa textens ”krux” i termer av ”ethical resource” utgör ett viktigt bidrag till såväl litteratur-filosofisk som narratologisk litteraturforskning, eftersom man ofta hamnat i endera värderande samtal kring ”god litteratur” eller i resonemang kring vilka narrativa element/strategier som väcker läsarens engagemang, empati, etc – och vilka som inte gör det. / This study explores the multiple ethical dimensions of the nine novels published between 1979 and 2011 that together constitute Nuruddin Farah’s three trilogies Variations on the Theme of an African Dictatorship, including Sweet and Sour Milk (1979), Sardines (1981), and Close Sesame (1983); Blood in the Sun, including Maps (1986), Gifts (1993), and Secrets (1998); and Past Imperfect, including Links (2003), Knots (2007), and Crossbones (2011). For all that separate these trilogies and novels thematically and stylistically, they are remarkably consistent in their enquiry. While firmly rooted in the geo-political particulars of Somalia, these novels stage human experience in ways that cut across time and place, inviting the reader to ponder a plethora of questions of profoundly ethical import: How can one remain human in the face of extreme adversities? How can one resist oppression in all its forms without becoming a perpetrator of that which one seeks to resist? What role may violence or non-violence have in seeking to see justice done? How far does responsibility for the other reach? How may dehumanizing forces be resisted in ways that preserve and even restore human dignity? By privileging the ethical in Farah’s ethico-political writing, the study draws attention to voices and perspectives that have gone unnoticed in previous readings, where political perspectives have dominated. Not only does a sustained analytical focus on how human dignity is valued, protected, preserved and even restored call for re-assessments of concepts such as ‘freedom,’ ‘resistance,’ and ‘moral responsibility.’ but the thesis’ highly text-centered approach has in the process of writing proved that Farah’s trilogies generate questions that demand a fuller exploration than what has hitherto been possible with a more limited emphasis on themes and narrative strategies. The use of a model in which five ‘ethical moments’ are explored thus allows for more extensive conclusions to be drawn, both regarding the ethics emerging in the trilogies themselves (‘ethics of the told,’ ‘ethics of telling’ and ‘ethics of writing’), in reading practices and critical reception (‘ethics of reading’), and my own research practice (‘ethics of method’). Ultimately, the study’s explorations of themes, narrative strategies, author’s responsibilities and critical response elucidate how Farah’s trilogies escape any narrow definition of what (African) (postcolonial) literature is or should be. By privileging the ethical trajectory – without losing sight of the strong political impetus of Farah’s writing – significant stories and perspectives surface that are no less political in their outlook than more conventional readings of “resistance writing.” By drawing on continental philosophy (Lévinas, Cavarero and Butler), narrative theory and postcolonial studies, this study brings fresh perspectives to bear on both familiar and less well-known material, while also contributing to new methodological frameworks within narrative ethics and new theoretical perspectives within narrative theory, not least as reflected in the final chapter’s discussion of imaginative challenges.
12

Continuity and change in the concept of freedom through three generations of the modern Arab Renaissance (Nahda)

Bush, Stephen Andrew 05 October 2011 (has links)
This thesis traces the development of the concept of freedom through three generations of the Modern Arab Renaissance (Nahda). The first chapter challenges the claim that the concept of freedom, in the sense of a political right, was absent from Arab thought prior to the French occupation of Egypt (1798-1801). ‘Abd al-Rahman al-Jabarti’s (1754-1825/6) chronicle of the occupation reveals that he possessed the concept of freedom despite the lack of an Arabic word to identify it. Therefore, when Rifa’a Rafi’ al-Tahtawi (1801-73) translated the French term liberté into Arabic, through a semantic expansion of the word hurriyah, he was naming rather than introducing the concept. The second chapter turns to Syria and examines how Butrus al-Bustani’s (1819-83) advocacy of the freedom of conscience (hurriyat al-damir) as an individual right reflects the influence of his American missionary mentors. However, while the missionaries used this concept to defend their narrow sectarian interests, Bustani believed that the freedom of all citizens must be protected equally by a secular government. The third chapter follows two Syrian friends, Muhammad Rashid Rida (1865-1935) and Farah Antun (1874-1922), who migrated to Egypt where their differing visions of reform brought them into conflict on the pages of their respective literary journals. While Antun argued that secularism provides the best guarantee of freedom, Rida contended that true freedom is only found in Islam. Despite this divide, they shared the same fundamental understanding of the value and meaning of freedom. This chapter shows that the concept of freedom is compatible with differing political ideologies while maintaining its core semantic field. Although there were some changes in how Arab intellectuals conceived of freedom during the nineteenth century, this study demonstrates that there was considerable continuity. / text
13

Contemporary PerforMemory

Zuckerman, Lola, Zami, Layla 03 January 2018 (has links)
Die Dissertation von L. Zuckerman (auch bekannt als Layla Zami) erforscht die Wechselbeziehungen zwischen Erinnerung, Bewegung, Diaspora und Zeit/Raum in Tanzproduktionen des 21. Jahrhunderts. In einer innovativen transkulturellen, transdisziplinären und transtemporalen Perspektive setzt die Publikation den Akzent auf die Solo-Arbeiten von sieben zeitgenössischen Choreograph_innen, die in Deutschland, Frankreich, Taiwan, Martinique, Palästina und den USA leben, und Interpret_innen ihrer eigenen Stücke sind. Ausgehend von der Hypothese, dass Körper eine zentrale Rolle in der Aushandlung und Überwindung von Machtverhältnissen spielen, fragt die Forschung was geschehen kann, wenn tanzende Körper die Vergangenheit in die Gegenwart transportieren, im materiellen und im metaphorischen Sinne. Die Autorin leitet ein neues Konzept ein, das im Englischen sowohl Substantiv als auch Verb ist: (to) perforMemory. Sie reflektiert die Besonderheiten der Ausdruckform Tanz in der Darstellung, Herstellung, und Tradierung von kultureller Erinnerung im Bezug auf historische Traumata wie der Holocaust, der Transatlantische Sklavenhandel, die Maafa, die Nakba und zeitgenössische gesellschaftspolitische Herausforderungen. Das als Spirale konzipierte Buch lädt zu einer Wanderung durch diasporische Tanz_schaften, in denen sich Fragestellungen zu Identität, Körperlichkeit, Zugehörigkeit, Räumlichkeit und Zeitlichkeit entfalten, und sich in der Diskussion von bestimmten Tanzsequenzen wechselseitig beleuchten. Die Doktorarbeit basiert auf den Ergebnissen einer vierjährigen internationalen Forschung. Die Quellen schöpfen aus unterschiedlichen Fachrichtungen, u.a. Gender und Queer Studies, Tanz/Performance, Kulturwissenschaften, Erinnerung, Postkoloniale Studien, Literatur, Quantenphysik, und Lyrik. Die Veröffentlichung beinhaltet ebenfalls die vollständigen Transkripte von persönlichen Gesprächen, die die Autorin mit den Künstler_innen Oxana Chi, Zufit Simon, Wan-Chao Chang, André M. Zachery, Farah Saleh, Christiane Emmanuel und Chantal Loïal aufgenommen hat, sowie Links zu Performance-Ausschnitten. / The dissertation by L. Zuckerman (aka Layla Zami) explores the interrelations and interactions between memory, movement, diaspora, and spacetime in 21st century dance productions. In an innovative transcultural, transdisciplinary and transtemporal approach, the publication focuses on solo works by seven contemporary dancers-choreographers based in Germany, France, Taiwan, Martinique, Palestine and the USA. Contending that corporeality is a site and a source of power, the research asks what happens when moving bodies propel the past into the present, metaphorically and materially. The author introduces a new concept: (to) perforMemory, which is both a noun and a verb, and discusses the specificity of dance in the production and transmission of cultural memory in relation to historical trauma such as the Holocaust, the Transatlantic Slave Trade, Maafa, the Nakba and contemporary sociopolitical challenges. Conceived in a spiral-like fashion, the book takes the reader through diasporic dancescapes in which notions of identity, home, embodiment, spatiality and temporality unfold and are brought into resonance with each other in the discussion of specific dance examples. The theoretical references connect such various fields as gender studies, dance and performance studies, cultural memory studies, postcolonial studies, literature, quantum physics, queer studies and poetry. Based on doctoral research conducted across the globe from 2013 to 2017, the electronic publication also features the full interview transcripts of personal conversations recorded by the author with the artists Oxana Chi, Zufit Simon, Wan-Chao Chang, André M. Zachery, Farah Saleh, Christiane Emmanuel and Chantal Loïal, as well as links to audiovisual performance excerpts. / La thèse explore les interrelations et interactions entre mémoire, mouvement, diaspora et espace-temps dans la danse au XXIème siècle. Dans une approche transculturelle, transdisciplinaire et transtemporelle, la publication se concentre sur des pièces solo chorégraphiées et interprétées par sept chorégraphes contemporain.e.s basé.e.s en Allemagne, France, Martinique, Palestine, à Taiwan et aux Etats-Unis. Estimant que les corps humains sont objets et sujets de relations de pouvoir, la thèse étudie ce qui se passe lorsque les corps dansent le passé au temps présent, au sens propre et au sens figuré. L'auteure introduit un nouveau concept: (to) perforMemory, à la fois un substantif et un verbe en anglais. Elle met en relief la spécificité de la danse comme forme de production et transmission de la mémoire culturelle, en relation avec des traumas historiques tels que l'Holocauste, la Traite triangulaire ou Maafa, la Nakba ainsi que des défis sociopolitiques contemporains. Conçu comme une spirale, le livre est une invitation au voyage à travers des paysages diasporiques dansés, dans lequel les notions d'identité, d'appartenance, de spatialité, de temporalité et de représentation émergent tour à tour, et s'illuminent mutuellement dans l'analyse de séquences de danse concrètes. Le corpus théorique puise dans des domaines aussi variés que les études de genre, la danse, les études postcoloniales, la litérature, les Cultural Studies, la physique quantique, les études queer et la poésie. Basée sur des recherches doctorales conduites de 2013 à 2017 à travers le monde, cette publication électronique comprend également les transcriptions intégrales des entretiens personnels menés avec les artistes Oxana Chi, Zufit Simon, Chantal Loïal, Christiane Emmanuel, Farah Saleh, Wan-Chao Chang, et André M. Zachery, ainsi que des liens vers des extraits audiovisuels de spectacles.
14

Warlords in Africa : a comparative study of Jonas Savimbi and Farah Aideed

Lawack, Marvin Sylvester 12 1900 (has links)
Thesis (MA (Political Science. International Studies))--Stellenbosch University, 2008. / Abstract: The African continent has been riddled with conflict for many years. Angola and Somalia are prime examples of countries having experienced protracted wars. During those wars, warlords have played a definite role in perpetuating the fighting. The thesis investigates warlordism in Africa. Specifically, it is a comparative analysis of Jonas Savimbi of Angola and Farah Aideed of Somalia. The thesis investigates the concept of warlords and uses the examples of Aideed and Savimbi to illustrate the impact of warlords on the respective countries. The examples of Aideed and Savimbi are further used to show that there are different ways to becoming ultimately labelled as a warlord. The role of state weakness and ethnicity will be investigated in the two cases. The discussion will highlight the points that state weakness (i.e. lack of governmental functionality) and the use of ethnicity play a profound role in the rise and survival of warlords. The case studies of Aideed and Savimbi will emphasise the influence of state weakness and ethnicity in their formation as warlords. The concept of state weakness is defined and the thesis illustrates that there are different levels of state weakness. The thesis compares Angola and Somalia, and shows that Savimbi and Aideed acted under vastly different conditions as warlords. Ethnicity is defined and linked to the idea that the effects of colonialism played a profound role in creating ethnic divisions, enabling warlords such as Aideed and Savimbi to use their ethnic backgrounds to mobilise followers to wage war. The thesis investigates how Aideed and Savimbi maintained their military organisations. Their ability to do so is related to both state weakness and ethnicity. State weakness and ethnicity create conditions which are conducive to the emergence of warlords.
15

Journeys beyond binaries : storytelling and polyphony in the narratives of Gabriella Ghermandi, Igiaba Scego, Ubax Cristina Ali Farah and Amara Lakhous

Prisco, Mario January 2015 (has links)
In the last two decades, in media and political discourses, Italianness has been increasingly represented as a homogeneous and compact entity, which is intruded on and contaminated by immigrants. In this study, the binary opposition between Italians and migrants is investigated from the perspective of writers who inhabit a liminal space, between at least two cultures, with the main intent to problematize the binary itself and to show its nature of fabrication. On the basis of Said's contrapuntal method, the novels by Ghermandi, Scego, Ali Farah and Lakhous are thought to establish a counterpoint with dominant discourses about Italianness. With the firm belief that discourses about postcolonial Italy must address its colonial past, the works analysed are considered as in dialogue with both colonial and postcolonial discourses. A dialogical relation is established, within the study, between Ghermandi's Regina di fiori e di perle and Flaiano's Tempo di uccidere. Written from the perspectives of the colonized and the colonizers respectively, both novels unveil colonial crimes and faults in Ethiopia, thus being counter-narratives about official representations of Italian colonialism. In Scego's Rhoda and Oltre Babilonia and Ali Farah's Madre piccolo, like threads, the individual stories of Somali exiles intertwine to create a fabric, whose pattern reveals the importance of the legacy of colonialism within contemporary Italy. Mainly situated between Italian and Somali cultures, the protagonists experience traumas, suffering and loss but finally attain a contrapuntal awareness between the two cultural poles. They become conscious of how enriching their in-between position is; they affirm the value of their hybrid identity. With a further zoom into postcolonial Italy, Lakhous' Scontro di civiltà per un ascensore a piazza Vittorio and Divorzio all'islamica a viale Marconi analyse the binary ‘us-Italians' versus ‘thosemigrants' in two microcosms in Rome. General polarizations such as Islam and the West emerge as factors which are exploited in order to exacerbate tensions and divisions. In addition, Italianness appears to be an internally fragmented entity, which is imagined as compact and homogeneous, as a reaction to the influx of immigrants. Against any logic of binarism, the novels by Ghermandi, Scego, Ali Farah and Lakhous reveal the constant effort to create a passage between two poles and to uphold a dialogical relation between them; crossings over and hybridity are continuously affirmed. With their highly important affirmation of multiplicity, the works challenge any essentializing notion of identity and any narrow representation of Italianness, within multiethnic contemporary Italy.
16

La lecture augmentée, entre l’écran et la page : à partir de 1984 d’Éric Plamondon et Pourquoi Bologne d’Alain Farah

Thériault, Jean-François 08 1900 (has links)
Ce mémoire a été réalisé avec les appuis financiers du Conseil de recherche en sciences humaines du Canada (CRSH) et du Fonds de recherche du Québec – Société et culture (FRQSC). / En prenant comme point de départ la trilogie 1984 d’Éric Plamondon et Pourquoi Bologne d’Alain Farah, romans tous publiés sur papier, ce mémoire se consacre à saisir ce qui change dans la lecture du texte à une époque où l’omniprésence des outils numériques bouscule nos modes de production et de réception des contenus. La réflexion se développe autour du constat que la littérature, même celle qui se publie et se lit toujours sur support imprimé, ne peut être considérée en marge de ces remaniements dont les ramifications s’étendent bien au-delà de l’usage de l’ordinateur et des écrans. Avec la conviction que ces changements doivent se penser dans la continuité et non dans la rupture, la lecture sera ici considérée comme une pratique et, en refusant son essentialisation, il s’agira de revisiter certaines théories canoniques afin de saisir la teneur de ces modulations dans le « savoir-lire » du texte. À travers diverses lectures des romans à l’étude, le premier chapitre dessine les contours d’une lecture connectée, qui se fait sous l’égide du réseautage. Le deuxième chapitre, via une lecture des théories d’Umberto Eco, soutient que ces changements affectent tout particulièrement la question de la compétence du lecteur, qui est réinterrogée à la lumière de l’accessibilité de l’information inhérente à l’époque numérique et des glissements épistémologiques que cette accessibilité sous-entend. Le troisième et dernier chapitre propose, à partir des textes de Plamondon et de Farah, des parcours de lecture qui alternent entre la page du livre et l’écran d’ordinateur où sont réinterrogées les frontières du littéraire et de l’informationnel. Des relations qui se tissent entre les pratiques de lecture et l’usage des outils numériques émerge une façon de lire définie ici comme une « lecture augmentée » du texte, qui suppose un lecteur actif qui, à travers ses parcours particuliers, questionne, doute, et prend position. Un lecteur, bref, qui ne se contente pas d’actualiser un contenu, mais qui le performe. / Taking as a starting point Éric Plamondon’s 1984 trilogy and Alain Farah’s Pourquoi Bologne, both in their published form, this master’s dissertation is dedicated to grasp the changes that occur in the act of reading in an age where the ubiquitous digital tools are challenging the way we produce and receive content. The thesis takes form around the premise that literature, even that which is published and read in a print form, cannot be considered excluded from these considerations, whose ramifications extend far beyond the use of computer and screens. With the strong belief that these changes need to be seen as a continuity rather than a fracture, the act of reading will be considered here as a practice and, by refusing it’s essentialisation, will serve as a stepping-stone to revisit certain canonical theories and understand these modulations that affect the reader’s “digital literacy”, that affects the reading patterns even when a text does not present itself in a digital form. Through various interpretive trails across Plamondon and Farah’s novels, the first chapter draws the outline of a “connective reading” that is highly influenced by the omnipresence of the network. The second chapter, by revisiting Umberto Eco’s theories, maintains that these changes affect the reader’s competence, which is re-examined in light of the informational accessibly inherent at the digital era and the epistemological shifts that accessibility implies. The third and final chapter offers different reading trails through Plamondon and Farah’s novels that alternate between the book page and the computer screen, in which the boundaries between literature and information are challenged. In the relationships that develop between reading practices and the use of digital tools emerges a certain interpretational way that is described here as “augmented reading”, concept that implies that the reader is taking actions toward the text and, through this course, questions, doubts, challenges and takes position. A reader, in short, that is not just actualizing content, but who performs it.
17

A case for memory enhancement : ethical, social, legal, and policy implications for enhancing the memory

Muriithi, Paul Mutuanyingi January 2014 (has links)
The desire to enhance and make ourselves better is not a new one and it has continued to intrigue throughout the ages. Individuals have continued to seek ways to improve and enhance their well-being for example through nutrition, physical exercise, education and so on. Crucial to this improvement of their well-being is improving their ability to remember. Hence, people interested in improving their well-being, are often interested in memory as well. The rationale being that memory is crucial to our well-being. The desire to improve one’s memory then is almost certainly as old as the desire to improve one’s well-being. Traditionally, people have used different means in an attempt to enhance their memories: for example in learning through storytelling, studying, and apprenticeship. In remembering through practices like mnemonics, repetition, singing, and drumming. In retaining, storing and consolidating memories through nutrition and stimulants like coffee to help keep awake; and by external aids like notepads and computers. In forgetting through rituals and rites. Recent scientific advances in biotechnology, nanotechnology, molecular biology, neuroscience, and information technologies, present a wide variety of technologies to enhance many different aspects of human functioning. Thus, some commentators have identified human enhancement as central and one of the most fascinating subject in bioethics in the last two decades. Within, this period, most of the commentators have addressed the Ethical, Social, Legal and Policy (ESLP) issues in human enhancements as a whole as opposed to specific enhancements. However, this is problematic and recently various commentators have found this to be deficient and called for a contextualized case-by-case analysis to human enhancements for example genetic enhancement, moral enhancement, and in my case memory enhancement (ME). The rationale being that the reasons for accepting/rejecting a particular enhancement vary depending on the enhancement itself. Given this enormous variation, moral and legal generalizations about all enhancement processes and technologies are unwise and they should instead be evaluated individually. Taking this as a point of departure, this research will focus specifically on making a case for ME and in doing so assessing the ESLP implications arising from ME. My analysis will draw on the already existing literature for and against enhancement, especially in part two of this thesis; but it will be novel in providing a much more in-depth analysis of ME. From this perspective, I will contribute to the ME debate through two reviews that address the question how we enhance the memory, and through four original papers discussed in part three of this thesis, where I examine and evaluate critically specific ESLP issues that arise with the use of ME. In the conclusion, I will amalgamate all my contribution to the ME debate and suggest the future direction for the ME debate.

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