Translations:Literacia da memória/15/en

Conceptual developments of memory literacy

The conceptual developments of memory literacy, based on the thesis of Valdemir Soares dos Santos Neto, can be organized as emerging analytical categories that help explain how memory is constructed, mediated, and disputed in digital culture. These developments are not necessarily “classical concepts,” but rather operational extensions of the central concept, derived from empirical analysis (fandom, edits, platforms).

Guardians of memory

The concept of guardians of memory designates the function exercised by subjects who, within media and cultural ecosystems, actively participate in the preservation, regulation, and legitimation of narratives about the past. Within the scope of memory literacy, the term does not refer only to institutional agents, but above all to distributed actors, such as members of fan communities, who mobilize mnemonic competencies to evaluate, reinterpret, and stabilize meanings attributed to collective memory. It is therefore a conceptual notion that describes the action of subjects capable of intervening in the processes of memory construction, operating as instances of symbolic validation in contexts marked by digital mediation. Guardians do not merely reproduce content, but exercise a normative and interpretive function, contributing to the maintenance, dispute, and reconfiguration of representations of the past in social circulation.

Mnemonic competencies

The concept of mnemonic competencies refers to the set of cognitive, interpretive, and critical capacities mobilized by subjects in the understanding, production, and circulation of narratives about the past. Within the scope of memory literacy, these competencies go beyond the simple recollection of events, involving the ability to recognize the mediated nature of memory, identify processes of selection and framing, and assess the verisimilitude and social uses of mnemonic representations. As an analytical category, mnemonic competencies articulate cognitive, affective, and media dimensions, making it possible to understand how individuals interpret and reconfigure the past in contemporary contexts marked by the digital circulation of content. In this sense, they constitute the operational core of memory literacy, making it possible to empirically analyze the different levels of critical reading and subject participation in the processes of constructing collective memory.

Mnemonic remixing

The concept of mnemonic remixing refers to the process of reconfiguring the past through the recombination of fragments of memory into new narrative arrangements, especially in digital media environments. Within the scope of memory literacy, mnemonic remixing involves the appropriation of pre-existing content, such as images, videos, or historical narratives, which are edited, reorganized, and resignified to produce new interpretations of the past. It is a practice that highlights the non-fixed character of memory, emphasizing its processual, mediated, and culturally situated nature. As an analytical category, mnemonic remixing makes it possible to understand how subjects, particularly in contexts of participatory culture, act as active agents in the construction of collective memory, articulating aesthetic, affective, and interpretive dimensions in the production of meanings in social circulation.