Absent Memory, Family Secrets, Narrative Inheritance

Abstract

Narratives are essential to the construction of personal identity, relationships, and fully actualized lives. Narrative inheritance consists of the stories and family lore that parents and other relatives pass on to children about the family. The article describes two belatedly acquired narratives of inheritance: the author’s own and that of Harold Goodall. The author applies the notion of “absent memory” to the family secrets that underlie these narratives and reflect on questions raised by such secrets—and by incomplete narrative inheritances—for the children burdened with them.