A Psychoanalytical Approach of Body Memory in Asian Literature

Siham Marroune

doi:doi:10.11648/j.ijla.20221001.12

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A Psychoanalytical Approach of Body Memory in Asian Literature

Siham Marroune

Published in International Journal of Literature and Arts (Volume 10, Issue 1)

Received: 23 September 2021 Accepted: 12 October 2021 Published: 17 January 2022

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Abstract

This paper investigates the concept of body memory treated in Shauna Singh Baldwin’s What the Body Remembers. It deals not only with revealing the potential methods of remembering, but also how victims resort to alternative modes of memory and recovery. The late twentieth century has witnessed an increased emphasis on questions of memory as the generations which experienced the atrocities of the two world wars die out, and new or revived national movements build their demands on memories of oppression or trauma. Adopting a non-verbal source of inquiry, Shauna Singh Baldwin questions the unchallenged supremacy of the verbal testimony as a means for healing the self, emphasizing how South Asian Literary Texts themselves point toward non-textual sites of memory such as human body. Baldwin explores the dark tunnels of memory in which the revelation of the past occurs brilliantly through new generatively trans-textual intersections of memory, nationalism and narrative Scars, tattoos, post-memory, and reincarnation are among the new modes presented by this Indian author. In this vein, I claim that the text comes out to suggest new ways in which human body can preserve and displays individual and collective memory. I shall also discuss the extent to which the female body potentially facilitate the act of remembering denying the importance of the language structure.

Published in	International Journal of Literature and Arts (Volume 10, Issue 1)
DOI	10.11648/j.ijla.20221001.12
Page(s)	11-15
Creative Commons	This is an Open Access article, distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits unrestricted use, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, provided the original work is properly cited.
Copyright	Copyright © The Author(s), 2024. Published by Science Publishing Group

Keywords

Memory, Body Memory, Individual & Collective Trauma

References

[1]	Ian, Hacking Rewriting the Soul: Multiple Personality and Science of Memory. Princeton: Princeton University Press. 1995.
[2]	James, Young E, Writing and Rewriting the Holocaust: Narrative and the Consequences of Interpretation, Bloomington: Indiana University Press. 1988. P 23.
[3]	Casey, Edward S. Remembering: A Phenomenological Study, Bloomington, IN: Anchor Books. 1987.
[4]	See, for example, Dominick LaCapra, History and Memory after Auschwitz (New York: Cornell University Press, 1998).
[5]	C. G. Jung, ‘On the Psychology of the Unconscious’, in The Essential Jung, ed. by Anthony Storr (London: Fontana, 1998), pp. 68-71; Nicolas Abraham, ‘Notes on the Phantom: A Complement to Freud’s Meta-psychology’ (1975), in The Shell and the Kernel: Renewals of Psychoanalysis, by Nicolas Abraham and Maria Torok, ed. and trans. by Nicholas T. Rand (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1994), I, pp. 171-76; Antonio Damasio, Descartes’ Error: Emotion, Reason, and the Human Brain (London: Penguin, 1994).
[6]	J. Bruce Long, ‘The Concepts of Human Action and Rebirth in the Mahabharata’, in Karma and Rebirth in Classical Indian Traditions, ed. by Wendy Doniger O’Flaherty (Delhi: Motilal Banarsidass, 1983), pp. 38-60 (p. 57).
[7]	Venna Das, “Language and the body: transactions in the construction of pain”, in Arthur Kleinman, Veena Das and Margaret Lock (eds) Social Suffering, New Delhi: Oxford, 1997, p. 80.
[8]	Marianne Hirsch, “The Generation of Postmemory”, in Poetics Today, 29. 1 (2008), 103-28 p. 103.
[9]	Marianne Hirsch, “Marked by memory: feminist reflections on trauma and transmission”, in Nancy K. Miller and Jason Tougaw (eds) Extremities: Trauma, Testimony, and Community, Urbana, IL: University of Illinois Press, 2002, p. 76-77.
[10]	Shauna Singh Baldwin, What the Body Remembers, New York: Anchor Books. 1999, P. 36-52-446-451-460-509-378.
[11]	Jung, C. G Two Essays on Analytical Psychology, trans. By R. F. C. Hull, 2^nd ed. 1966; repr. London: Routledge, 1990 p 69.

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APA Style

Siham Marroune. (2022). A Psychoanalytical Approach of Body Memory in Asian Literature. International Journal of Literature and Arts, 10(1), 11-15. https://doi.org/10.11648/j.ijla.20221001.12

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Siham Marroune. A Psychoanalytical Approach of Body Memory in Asian Literature. Int. J. Lit. Arts 2022, 10(1), 11-15. doi: 10.11648/j.ijla.20221001.12

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AMA Style

Siham Marroune. A Psychoanalytical Approach of Body Memory in Asian Literature. Int J Lit Arts. 2022;10(1):11-15. doi: 10.11648/j.ijla.20221001.12

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@article{10.11648/j.ijla.20221001.12,
  author = {Siham Marroune},
  title = {A Psychoanalytical Approach of Body Memory in Asian Literature},
  journal = {International Journal of Literature and Arts},
  volume = {10},
  number = {1},
  pages = {11-15},
  doi = {10.11648/j.ijla.20221001.12},
  url = {https://doi.org/10.11648/j.ijla.20221001.12},
  eprint = {https://article.sciencepublishinggroup.com/pdf/10.11648.j.ijla.20221001.12},
  abstract = {This paper investigates the concept of body memory treated in Shauna Singh Baldwin’s What the Body Remembers. It deals not only with revealing the potential methods of remembering, but also how victims resort to alternative modes of memory and recovery. The late twentieth century has witnessed an increased emphasis on questions of memory as the generations which experienced the atrocities of the two world wars die out, and new or revived national movements build their demands on memories of oppression or trauma. Adopting a non-verbal source of inquiry, Shauna Singh Baldwin questions the unchallenged supremacy of the verbal testimony as a means for healing the self, emphasizing how South Asian Literary Texts themselves point toward non-textual sites of memory such as human body. Baldwin explores the dark tunnels of memory in which the revelation of the past occurs brilliantly through new generatively trans-textual intersections of memory, nationalism and narrative Scars, tattoos, post-memory, and reincarnation are among the new modes presented by this Indian author. In this vein, I claim that the text comes out to suggest new ways in which human body can preserve and displays individual and collective memory. I shall also discuss the extent to which the female body potentially facilitate the act of remembering denying the importance of the language structure.},
 year = {2022}
}

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TY  - JOUR
T1  - A Psychoanalytical Approach of Body Memory in Asian Literature
AU  - Siham Marroune
Y1  - 2022/01/17
PY  - 2022
N1  - https://doi.org/10.11648/j.ijla.20221001.12
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JF  - International Journal of Literature and Arts
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PB  - Science Publishing Group
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UR  - https://doi.org/10.11648/j.ijla.20221001.12
AB  - This paper investigates the concept of body memory treated in Shauna Singh Baldwin’s What the Body Remembers. It deals not only with revealing the potential methods of remembering, but also how victims resort to alternative modes of memory and recovery. The late twentieth century has witnessed an increased emphasis on questions of memory as the generations which experienced the atrocities of the two world wars die out, and new or revived national movements build their demands on memories of oppression or trauma. Adopting a non-verbal source of inquiry, Shauna Singh Baldwin questions the unchallenged supremacy of the verbal testimony as a means for healing the self, emphasizing how South Asian Literary Texts themselves point toward non-textual sites of memory such as human body. Baldwin explores the dark tunnels of memory in which the revelation of the past occurs brilliantly through new generatively trans-textual intersections of memory, nationalism and narrative Scars, tattoos, post-memory, and reincarnation are among the new modes presented by this Indian author. In this vein, I claim that the text comes out to suggest new ways in which human body can preserve and displays individual and collective memory. I shall also discuss the extent to which the female body potentially facilitate the act of remembering denying the importance of the language structure.
VL  - 10
IS  - 1
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Author Information

Siham Marroune

Sais-Fez Faculty of Arts and Humanities, Sidi Mohammed Ben Abdellah University, Fez, Morroco

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Plain Text BibTeX RIS

APA Style

Siham Marroune. (2022). A Psychoanalytical Approach of Body Memory in Asian Literature. International Journal of Literature and Arts, 10(1), 11-15. https://doi.org/10.11648/j.ijla.20221001.12

Copy | Download

ACS Style

Siham Marroune. A Psychoanalytical Approach of Body Memory in Asian Literature. Int. J. Lit. Arts 2022, 10(1), 11-15. doi: 10.11648/j.ijla.20221001.12

Copy | Download

AMA Style

Siham Marroune. A Psychoanalytical Approach of Body Memory in Asian Literature. Int J Lit Arts. 2022;10(1):11-15. doi: 10.11648/j.ijla.20221001.12

Copy | Download

@article{10.11648/j.ijla.20221001.12,
  author = {Siham Marroune},
  title = {A Psychoanalytical Approach of Body Memory in Asian Literature},
  journal = {International Journal of Literature and Arts},
  volume = {10},
  number = {1},
  pages = {11-15},
  doi = {10.11648/j.ijla.20221001.12},
  url = {https://doi.org/10.11648/j.ijla.20221001.12},
  eprint = {https://article.sciencepublishinggroup.com/pdf/10.11648.j.ijla.20221001.12},
  abstract = {This paper investigates the concept of body memory treated in Shauna Singh Baldwin’s What the Body Remembers. It deals not only with revealing the potential methods of remembering, but also how victims resort to alternative modes of memory and recovery. The late twentieth century has witnessed an increased emphasis on questions of memory as the generations which experienced the atrocities of the two world wars die out, and new or revived national movements build their demands on memories of oppression or trauma. Adopting a non-verbal source of inquiry, Shauna Singh Baldwin questions the unchallenged supremacy of the verbal testimony as a means for healing the self, emphasizing how South Asian Literary Texts themselves point toward non-textual sites of memory such as human body. Baldwin explores the dark tunnels of memory in which the revelation of the past occurs brilliantly through new generatively trans-textual intersections of memory, nationalism and narrative Scars, tattoos, post-memory, and reincarnation are among the new modes presented by this Indian author. In this vein, I claim that the text comes out to suggest new ways in which human body can preserve and displays individual and collective memory. I shall also discuss the extent to which the female body potentially facilitate the act of remembering denying the importance of the language structure.},
 year = {2022}
}

Copy | Download

TY  - JOUR
T1  - A Psychoanalytical Approach of Body Memory in Asian Literature
AU  - Siham Marroune
Y1  - 2022/01/17
PY  - 2022
N1  - https://doi.org/10.11648/j.ijla.20221001.12
DO  - 10.11648/j.ijla.20221001.12
T2  - International Journal of Literature and Arts
JF  - International Journal of Literature and Arts
JO  - International Journal of Literature and Arts
SP  - 11
EP  - 15
PB  - Science Publishing Group
SN  - 2331-057X
UR  - https://doi.org/10.11648/j.ijla.20221001.12
AB  - This paper investigates the concept of body memory treated in Shauna Singh Baldwin’s What the Body Remembers. It deals not only with revealing the potential methods of remembering, but also how victims resort to alternative modes of memory and recovery. The late twentieth century has witnessed an increased emphasis on questions of memory as the generations which experienced the atrocities of the two world wars die out, and new or revived national movements build their demands on memories of oppression or trauma. Adopting a non-verbal source of inquiry, Shauna Singh Baldwin questions the unchallenged supremacy of the verbal testimony as a means for healing the self, emphasizing how South Asian Literary Texts themselves point toward non-textual sites of memory such as human body. Baldwin explores the dark tunnels of memory in which the revelation of the past occurs brilliantly through new generatively trans-textual intersections of memory, nationalism and narrative Scars, tattoos, post-memory, and reincarnation are among the new modes presented by this Indian author. In this vein, I claim that the text comes out to suggest new ways in which human body can preserve and displays individual and collective memory. I shall also discuss the extent to which the female body potentially facilitate the act of remembering denying the importance of the language structure.
VL  - 10
IS  - 1
ER  -

Copy | Download