The Palimpsest of Memory in Kazuo Ishiguro’s When We Were Orphans
Using as a starting point Kazuo Ishiguro’s traumatic exile and estrangement from his homeland, this paper explores the relationship between memory and trauma in When We Were Orphans. After a brief study of different forms of displacement, the first part focuses on anamnesis and re-enactment as well...
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| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
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Presses Universitaires de la Méditerranée
2005-11-01
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| Series: | Études Britanniques Contemporaines |
| Online Access: | http://journals.openedition.org/ebc/13822 |
| _version_ | 1797667197657546752 |
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| author | Pascal Zinck |
| author_facet | Pascal Zinck |
| author_sort | Pascal Zinck |
| collection | DOAJ |
| description | Using as a starting point Kazuo Ishiguro’s traumatic exile and estrangement from his homeland, this paper explores the relationship between memory and trauma in When We Were Orphans. After a brief study of different forms of displacement, the first part focuses on anamnesis and re-enactment as well as the need for the narrator to articulate or script his story in the light of Freud’s concept of Trauerarbeit.The second part concentrates on memory malfunction and memory manipulation. Elisabeth Loftus’s false memory syndrome serves to examine the different strategies of re-membering, dis-membering and misremembering the past. Both central to the narrator’s trauma and instrumental to shaping his memories, the mother figure is seen through the Œdipal paradigm.The third and final part demonstrates how aesthetic closure blurs the borders between private and public histories. When We Were Orphans deploys an apocryphal discourse, through an East–West polarity and a Sherlock Holmes meta-narrative with its detective quick fix which problematises truth and healing. |
| first_indexed | 2024-03-11T20:09:47Z |
| format | Article |
| id | doaj.art-b51974525106484f98943babb76ac535 |
| institution | Directory Open Access Journal |
| issn | 1168-4917 2271-5444 |
| language | English |
| last_indexed | 2024-03-11T20:09:47Z |
| publishDate | 2005-11-01 |
| publisher | Presses Universitaires de la Méditerranée |
| record_format | Article |
| series | Études Britanniques Contemporaines |
| spelling | doaj.art-b51974525106484f98943babb76ac5352023-10-03T12:59:06ZengPresses Universitaires de la MéditerranéeÉtudes Britanniques Contemporaines1168-49172271-54442005-11-012910.4000/ebc.13822The Palimpsest of Memory in Kazuo Ishiguro’s When We Were OrphansPascal ZinckUsing as a starting point Kazuo Ishiguro’s traumatic exile and estrangement from his homeland, this paper explores the relationship between memory and trauma in When We Were Orphans. After a brief study of different forms of displacement, the first part focuses on anamnesis and re-enactment as well as the need for the narrator to articulate or script his story in the light of Freud’s concept of Trauerarbeit.The second part concentrates on memory malfunction and memory manipulation. Elisabeth Loftus’s false memory syndrome serves to examine the different strategies of re-membering, dis-membering and misremembering the past. Both central to the narrator’s trauma and instrumental to shaping his memories, the mother figure is seen through the Œdipal paradigm.The third and final part demonstrates how aesthetic closure blurs the borders between private and public histories. When We Were Orphans deploys an apocryphal discourse, through an East–West polarity and a Sherlock Holmes meta-narrative with its detective quick fix which problematises truth and healing.http://journals.openedition.org/ebc/13822 |
| spellingShingle | Pascal Zinck The Palimpsest of Memory in Kazuo Ishiguro’s When We Were Orphans Études Britanniques Contemporaines |
| title | The Palimpsest of Memory in Kazuo Ishiguro’s When We Were Orphans |
| title_full | The Palimpsest of Memory in Kazuo Ishiguro’s When We Were Orphans |
| title_fullStr | The Palimpsest of Memory in Kazuo Ishiguro’s When We Were Orphans |
| title_full_unstemmed | The Palimpsest of Memory in Kazuo Ishiguro’s When We Were Orphans |
| title_short | The Palimpsest of Memory in Kazuo Ishiguro’s When We Were Orphans |
| title_sort | palimpsest of memory in kazuo ishiguro s when we were orphans |
| url | http://journals.openedition.org/ebc/13822 |
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