muistelisuus

Muistelisuus is a narrative and cultural quality that foregrounds memory and the act of remembering as a central organizing principle. The term is used in Finnish literary and cultural studies to describe works in which the past is not simply depicted but actively constructed through recollection, reflection, and memory work. Muistelisuus appears across genres, including autobiography, memoir, diary fiction, and recollection-based narrative, and also in film and other media where past events are reframed through memory.

Key features include subjectivity, reconstructive memory, and a non-linear temporality. Memories may be selected, edited, and reinterpreted, so that the past is shaped by present concerns, identity, trauma, or social context. The past is often layered with gaps, omissions, and ambiguities, inviting readers to question what is remembered and why. Language can imitate inner speech, oral storytelling, or documentary recollection, creating an impression of immediacy and intimacy.

Muistelisuus serves several functions: it enables personal and collective memory work, fosters empathy, and offers a critical lens on memory itself, including its biases and the politics of remembering. It intersects with autofiction, memoir, and historical narratives, and is a common analytical focus in discussions of how literature constructs meaning from the past. Related concepts include muisti (memory), muistelu (reminiscence), and cultural memory studies.