Hypomnema
Hypomnema (ancient Greek neuter: ὑπόμνημα, hypómnema ; plural: ὑπομνήματα, hypomnēmata ) is an ancient literary genre. The term is from the ancient Greek preposition Hypo- (ὑπό, under , down ) and Mneme (Μνήμη, memory ) together and literally means, laid down memory '.
In ancient times, hypomnemata were exercise books and notebooks . They served as memory aids, but were also personal guides for living. Quotations, parts of works, aphorisms and examples were entered in them. But also actions that you had witnessed or read reports about, thoughts and considerations that you had heard or that had crossed your mind . The hypomnema formed a material memory of things read, heard and thought and offered these to the user as an accumulated treasure for rereading and later meditation . The French philosopher Michel Foucault refers to this a. a. in connection with Seneca's self-awareness exercises: “During this time there was something like a culture of personal writing: taking notes on texts read, conversations and reflections that you heard or in which you participated; keeping notebooks ( called Hypomnēmata by the Greeks ) on important things that had to be reread from time to time in order to refresh one's memory. "
Hypomnemata are not to be confused with diaries , since they were not reports that the writer gave of himself, but a summary of sentences for reflection and self-constitution or self-contemplation.
The hypomnemata came to their real meaning in late antiquity. For the Stoics , but also for the first Christian church fathers (as for the church writer Hegesipp ), they were an indispensable instrument of collection, order, reflection and self-contemplation. Scripture replaced the friend's gaze in self-examination.
literature
- Hermann Eichele: Hypomnema. In: Historical dictionary of rhetoric . Edited by Gert Ueding. Vol. 4: Hu-K. Niemeyer, Tübingen 1998, Sp. 122–128,
- Michel Foucault: On Genealogie of Ethics (Interview Dreyfuss / Rabinow, 1983), pp. 245f., 285f.
- Interview with Michel Foucault . In: Paul Rabinow (Ed.): The Foucault Reader . New York 1984, pp. 363-365.
- Bruce Kraut: Hypomnema to Theogenes the Dioiketes . In: Journal of Papyrology and Epigraphy . 80: 273-276 (1990).
- Wilhelm Schmid : In Search of a New Art of Living, The Question of the Reason and the New Establishment of Ethics in Michel Foucault, p. 308f. Suhrkamp, Frankfurt am Main 1991, ISBN 3-518-58082-5 . New edition: Suhrkamp, Frankfurt am Main 2000, ISBN 3-518-29087-8 .
- Detlef Thiel: Plato's Hypomnemata. The Genesis of Platonism from the Memory of Scripture. Karl Alber, Freiburg 1993, ISBN 978-3-495-47766-3 .
- Luc Van der Stockt: A Plutarchan Hypomnema on Self-Love . In: The American Journal of Philology . Volume 120 (1999), pp. 575-599.
Individual evidence
- ↑ Michel Foucault: The Hermeneutics of the Subject. Lectures at the College de France 1981-82. Translated by Graham Burchell. Picador, New York 2005, p. 500.