| Kazuo Ishiguro’s latest novel,The Buried Giant,is appraised by critics as a stark departure from his hallmark theme “individual’s failure to reconcile past traumatic memories,and the impact of memories on individual”.In this novel,Ishiguro focuses on collective memory,and explores how nations and societies respond to past atrocities by forgetting.Under the genre of fantasy lies the author’s real intention—to reflect tensions and pressure faced by the contemporary world,and urges readers to meditate: How should nations confront the legacies of misdeeds in their collective memory.Can the dilemma be solved by simply forgetting the painful memories?This paper attempts to interpret The Buried Giant from the perspective of collective memory.The term “collective memory” was coined by Maurice Halbwachs in 1925.He emphasizes the “social framework” of all memories and defines collective memory as an active past that construct our identity.In the 1980 s,with the rising interests in memory and multiculturalism as well as the flourishing of ethnic literature,concepts in collective memory study have been widely used in many disciplines,including psychology,anthropology,historiography,etc.Many scholars have analyzed the Holocaust,the impact of civil war,and the national trauma from the perspective of collective memory.The thesis consists of five parts.The first part is introduction,including the background information of Kazuo Ishiguro and The Buried Giant;the relevant theory of collective memory;the researches on Kazuo Ishiguro and The Buried Giant at home and abroad,and the framework of the paper.The main part of the thesis is divided into three chapters.Chapter One will analyze the reconstruction of collective memory.Since the framework of memory changes,the reconstruction of memory is inevitably the distortion of memory to some extent.The nobility is the guardian of tradition and existing collective memory to show loyalty to feudal lords.The existence of antagonistic memory makes it impossible for a collective memory to be monopolized as in a totalitarian society.Chapter Two is to explore forgetting in collective memory based on Paul Ricoeur’s philosophical writings on forgetting in collective memory.Forgetting is usually used in political arena to describe some of the political initiatives associated with collective memory.This chapter will analyze King Arthur’s use of definite forgetting to eliminate the memory of the massacre,the use of reversible forgetting by individuals to get rid of traumatic memories,and the predicament of collective identities caused by manipulation of forgetting in collective memory.Chapter Three is about the maintenance of collective memory.Mainly concerned with the transmission of collective memory through generations,the role of recognition and mutual recognition in collective memory,and the fight to master the national narrative in order to pass down the prosper collective memory.The last part is conclusion reaffirming arguments in the thesis.Through the analysis from the perspective of collective memory study,The Buried Giant reveals the presentist construction and distortion in collective memory,embodying the abuse and role of forgetting in manipulation of collective memory,and demonstrating the status of narrative in the maintenance of collective memory. |
