This essay proposes the genealogical study of remembering and forgetting as recursive rhetorical capacities that enable discourse to place itself in an ever-changing present. "Mnesis" is a meta-concept for the arrangements of remembering and forgetting that enable rhetoric to function. Most of the essay defines the materiality of "mnesis", first noting the limitations of studying recursivity within dominant approaches remembering and forgetting in rhetorical studies, then describing "mnesis" as the performative necessity to fold the past into the present so as to provide "now" with a sense of place. After setting a foundation, the essay closes with a sketch of how to produce a genealogy of recursion. (Contains 106 notes.)