Manuscript Title:

RECOLLECTIONS AND REVERBERATIONS IN TERMS OF FREUDIAN THEORY OF MEMORY IN KAZUO ISHIGURO’S A PALE VIEW OF HILLS, THE REMAINS OF THE DAY AND THE BURIED GIANT

Author:

G. AKILAN, G. BEULAH​

DOI Number:

DOI:10.17605/OSF.IO/MCR98

Published : 2021-09-10

About the author(s)

1. G. AKILAN - Research Scholar, Sri Meenakshi Government Arts College for Women (Autonomous) Madurai.
2. G. BEULAH​ - Associate Professor, PG & Research Department of English Sri Meenakshi Government Arts College for Women (Autonomous) Madurai.

Full Text : PDF

Abstract

Ishiguro is largely considered as one of England's most well-known contemporary fiction writers. Memories are odd experiences-near symbols of the self that reveal and conceal ambitions, aims, wants, and former pictures of the self. These sophisticated mental images were dispersed across multiple processing systems for Freud. The energetic activity during memory creates reverberation, which causes attitudes and noises to persist based on the experience, resulting in best explanations. Philosophers, monarchs, and cultures in general have always been fascinated by memory. This paper traces how The Remains of the Day and The Buried Giant investigate such representations which help people cope with terrible memories of failures and losses. Memory is at the heart of reconstructing the past in search of a meaningful story, and the past is formed by the bonds Ishiguro’s characters have with it. According to Freud, Etsuko is unable to tell or recall anything about her traumatic experience. If we, as readers, pay close attention to Etsuko's repetitive actions, we can deduce the source of the anguish buried in her mind. The recurrence serves to emphasise that Etsuko's mind is heavily influenced by Keiko's death. From the protagonist's perspective, reverberations and recollections engage with memory and trauma as a technique to give voice to inner quest during their living or journey, as described in this study. Their memories of catastrophic historical events linger in official historical discourse, deconstructing pre-existing perceptions of the past. They destabilize hegemonic narratives through a combination of recollections, reverberations, and memory lane, as well as broader perspectives that, taken together, counterbalance mainstream modes of expression and traditional historical views, and draw attention to the specificities of their war and trauma experiences.


Keywords

Recollection, Reverberations, memory, time, self-delusion