The Ontological Foundations of Pierre Nora’s 'Sites of Memory' and Paul Ricoeur’s 'Memory, History, Forgetting': a comparative study

Document Type : Research Paper

Authors

1 PhD Candidate, Department of Urbanism, Yazd University, Yazd, Iran

2 Associate Professor, Urbanism Department, Yazd University, Yazd, Iran

3 Department of Geography and Urban Planning, University of Isfahan, Isfahan, Iran

Abstract

Objective: Adopting philosophical and interdisciplinary approaches, the article examines the existential status of collective memory at the nexus of place, time, and narrative by aligning the ontological foundations of Pierre Nora’s theory of lieux de mémoire and Paul Ricœur’s trilogy Memory, History, Forgetting.
Method: A conceptual–hermeneutic analysis conducted across five comparative axes derived from the two frameworks: the ontology of memory; the relation between memory and history; the function of forgetting; temporality; and subjectivity/identity.
Findings: The analysis shows that Nora, through his distinction between milieux de mémoire—as the milieu of lived memory—and lieux de mémoire, emphasizes the externalization, symbolic mediation, and emplacement of memory in modernity, viewing forgetting as a threatening force that accelerates archiving and memorialization. In contrast, Ricœur, via the notions of the “trace” and the mimesis triad, understands memory as internal, narratively configured, and temporally structured; for him, forgetting is a condition of remembering and carries an ethical dimension linked to justice and forgiveness. Accordingly, the relation between memory and history is predominantly conflictual in Nora’s schema, whereas it is dialectical and mutually enabling in Ricœur’s.
Conclusion: The article concludes with a proposal for a “relational ontology of memory”: memory takes shape through traces, is stabilized in places, is generalized by narrative, and endures within the productive tension of remembering- forgetting and memory/history. On this basis, combining Nora’s institutional sensitivity with Ricoeur’s hermeneutic precision opens a normative horizon of “just memory,” one that both reduces the hollowing-out of memorials and prevents the over-narrativization of identity.

Graphical Abstract

The Ontological Foundations of Pierre Nora’s 'Sites of Memory' and Paul Ricoeur’s 'Memory, History, Forgetting': a comparative study

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References

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Journal of Philosophical Investigations
Volume 20, Issue 55 - Serial Number 55
Articles
Issue 55, Summer 2026
July 2026
Pages 429-446

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