Memory and Emotion: Basque Women's Stories, Constructing Meaning from Memory

Memory and Emotion: (Basque) Women's Stories denounces the silence to which women --particularly those who withdraw from adopting a male-dominated discourse--have been subject. This is a collection about women whose stories were long silenced or disregarded: diasporic and exiled women, activists, militant scholars, avant-garde writers, and forerunners of women's rights. The researchers and contributors to this volume have dared to remember and retell the stories of those women who blazed a trail through unchartered territory--women whose contributions have been overlooked and ignored. In that sense, each contribution to Memory and Emotion: (Basque) Women's Stories could be deemed a metatextual process of memory construction-- a process of meaning-making from past experiences, knowledge, and identity. The chapters focus on relevant questions such as: Does emotion help us remember? How do emotions affect the ability to recall memories? Does memory contribute to adaptation? Does restoring one's self--individually and/or collectively--mean daring to remember? And is oblivion necessary for survival?