Fifty Years of Endurance: Dementia, the Abandonment of Memory, and the Possibility of Archive for a Life-long Violence Victim | Chapter 02 | Research Developments in Arts and Social Studies Vol. 4

 Through the medium of storytelling, history and literature interact in the present epoch. Historians are beginning to record a variety of accounts of events, having modified the tradition of relying solely on written sources for authenticity[1]. Literature has evolved to serve as a tool of analysing and sharing experiences and happenings, with a larger range of narrative approaches than ever before[2]. The tendency of reconciliation between history and literature cannot be ignored, especially with the creation of the archive from the history field and the rise of literary work to recount disastrous events.

This study tries to retrieve a forgotten memory and accept it as worthy of preserving, while appreciating the interdisciplinary evolution of humanities research. The recent discoveries are likely to add to the enrichment of the field. The literature that deals with subjects that blur the lines between history, speech, memory, and representation.

The author was able to save the memory of a dementia patient who had also been a victim of kidnapping, house arrest, and domestic abuse employing an indirect technique via an oral history interview[3]. Theoretically, the approach is based on Cathy Caruth [4], a literary critic who applies the notion of trauma to humanities study, resulting in new methods of understanding things at the confluence of memories and records, telling and listening, psychoanalysis, sociology, history, and literature (see also Caruth [5]). Several therapists have noted that victims of abuse may turn to pathological memory loss in order to cope with their psychological trauma [6]. This research considers the possibilities. The archive's potential as a substitute for memory loss is explored in this study.

[1] The legitimacy of scientific research was questioned more extensively in the post-colonial study of history in the 1990s, while being under severe critique in the creation of feminist scholarship from the 1980s. Alternative means of acquiring knowledge outside of the European heritage have been attempted since then. Decolonizing Methodologies [1], for example, by Linda Tuhiwai Smith.

[2] Since the 2000s, the popularity of memoirs has risen, indicating a current of reconciliation between history and literature. Dictée by Theresa Hak Kyung Cha [2] and Hiroshima in the Morning by Rahna Reiko Rizzuto [3] are excellent examples of this type of literary work.

 

[3] Oral history is one of the feminist and post-colonial revisions of historical research's alternative approaches. See Penny Summerfield's Reconstructing Women's Wartime Lives [7], especially the "Preface and Acknowledgements," for further information on the methodology's relevance.

Author(S) Details

Naoko Ohri
Hitotsubashi University, Japan.

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