One may not recall everything that has happen to him or her throughout their entire lives, but there is a good chance that an unconscious part of their mind does. One may not remember the minute details of a day at the beach, but returning to that same beach a decade later and finding a vaguely familiar seashell may bring back memories of that faithful day. In Swann’s Way, Marcel Proust likened this feature of memory to a “Celtic belief that the souls of those whom we have lost are held captive in some inferior being” (Proust, 1801). Here, souls are memories. They are unbeknownst to us, chained to something other than our conscious mind (intellect); yet, freeing those memories is as simple as finding their prison or re-experiencing the sensations that made them remarkable in the first place. After leaving his hometown of Combray and remembering his youth, Proust “saw no more of it than this sort of luminous panel, sharply defined against a vague and shadowy background, like the panels which the glow of a Bengal light or a searchlight beam that will cut out and illuminate in a building the other parts of which remain plunged in darkness … isolated from all its possible surroundings, detached and solitary against the dark background … as though all Combray had consisted of but two floors” (Proust, 1800). Proust, of course, is speaking to his ability—or inability, rather—to remember the fine details of his childhood. He saw no more than that what was memorable (“saw no more than this sort of luminous panel”), which deceived him into believing that nothing other than what he could remember occurring at Combray happened (“as though all Combray had consisted of but two floors”). While this seems like an absurd proposition, it speaks to... ... middle of paper ... ...lieves that there are two kinds of memory: voluntary and involuntary. Voluntary memories would be those not hidden and difficult to recall. Involuntary memories would be those recalled only when rediscovering a sensation, as he did when tasting the madeleine dipped in tea. Proust’s observation that the nature of memory—that there are hidden memories—is similar to the Celtic belief of souls trapped in objects is very astute. Unfortunately, Proust does not hypothesize on why sensations trap the memories that they do. Even so, Swann’s Way provides novel commentary on the nature of human memory and provides avenues for further psychological research, such as answering why sensations trap the memories that they do, etc. Works Cited Lawall, Sarah N., and Maynard Mack. The Norton Anthology of World Literature the Twentieth Century. 2nd ed. New York: Norton, 2002. Print.
... World Literature. Ed. Martin Puncher. New York: W. W. Norton & Company, 2012. 441. Print.
Lawall, Sarah,et al. The Norton Anthology of World Literature. 2nd ed. Volume A (slipcased). Norton, 2001. W.W. Norton and Company Inc. New York, NY.
Bierhorst, John, et al. The Norton Anthology: World Literature. Vol I. New York: W.W. Norton & Co.,
Repressed memories is a topic that has been an ongoing dispute among some, however ac...
...These specifics recalled consist of things which, under normal conditions, we probably would not have ever remembered. The number of detailed facts retained about a particular situation is usually commensurate to the intensity of involvement or proximity to the action in question; therefore, it can be reasonably concluded that while these memories are not always perfectly engrained into our minds, interesting arguments exist which support the possibility of substantial and long-term recall of these matters.
The article How to Tell If a Particular Memory Is True or False by Daniel M. Bernstein and Elizabeth F. Loftus, addresses the various techniques used by cognitive scientists and other researchers in hopes of distinguishing true from false memories. For this article Loftus and Bernstein, memory researchers, chose to discuss the different methods currently used, rather than trying to find new ways to tell if a particular memory is true or false. Their findings in these three different approaches are very interesting, and leads us to think critically of the veracity of true and false memories.
Memory takes centre stage in this novel, which departs from the traditional Nineteenth Century novel in that the narrative does not follow one protagonist throughout. In ‘Swann’s Way’ the protagonist is Marcel, but Proust, a modernist writer uses ‘distancing’ to create “an art of multiplication with regard to the representation of person ... creating aesthetics of deception for the autobiographical novel.” (Nalbantian, 1997, p.63). Also Proust referred to his narrator as the one who says ‘I’ and who is not always me.”(ibid). Proust’s highly subjective approach to fiction suits his subject of memory recall and the author uses this extract to analysis the voluntary or consciousness and the involuntary or subconsciouses memories. Marcel discovers through experience that intellectualising does not allow memories to resurface but familiar daily domestic sensations do.
Literature of the Western World, Volume 2. 4th edition by Brian Wilkie and James Hurt. Upper Saddle River, NJ: Prentice-Hall, Inc., 1997.
Most people are very convinced that they have memories of past experiences because of the event itself or the bigger picture of the experience. According to Ulric Neisser, memories focus on the fact that the events outlined at one level of analysis may be components of other, larger events (Rubin 1). For instance, one will only remember receiving the letter of admission as their memory of being accepted into the University of Virginia. However, people do not realize that it is actually the small details that make up their memories. What make up the memory of being accepted into the University of Virginia are the hours spent on writing essays, the anxiety faced due to fear of not making into the university and the happiness upon hearing your admission into the school; these small details are very important in creating memories of this experience. If people’s minds are preset on merely thinking that memories are the general idea of their experiences, memories become very superficial and people will miss out on what matters most in life. Therefore, in “The Amityville Horror”, Jay Anson deliberately includes small details that are unnecessary in the story to prove that only memory can give meaning to life.
In the forthcoming paragraphs, I’ll clarify exactly what we recollect and what constitutes as a cognitive act as being an act of recollection. Additionally, I’ll present two different interpretations, K and D, on the theory of recollection and argue for D while offering an error theory for K. Both interpretations are meant to answer two questions: What the process of recollection of the Platonic “forms” is and who recollects. Let’s start by examining why ToR was even presented.
The Norton Anthology of World Literature. Volume 2. New York: W. W. Norton and Company, 2013.
Memories cripple the consciousness of reality. People’s perception evolved within illusions and memories, thus reflects identity. The mind can both function to forget and remember. Are memories something we have or something we have lost? A memory that is being stored often deviates from the memories being recollected. People tend to say that memories last forever. But can those memories in a persons mind be always so true or accurate enough for the story to be behold? Not every memory that people remembers are accurate. Memories may form falsely and unconsciously at times. Genuine or fake, people are still able to make the memory out of something that occurred within their lives. Memories can be distorted and re-invented that leads to the likelihood of creating the false memories minted in the mind.
...like I’m disappearing… nothing makes sense to me.’ It may be argued that Clemantime is encountering a secondary experience, an experience which resembles its primary version but is not recognised by memory. ‘The experience itself is in a sense being used in our thinking, and so, is present in us. For this reason exercising a phenomenal concept will feel like having the experience itself. (Papineau, )’ This ‘antipathetic fallacy’ is described by Papineau as a deep-seated intuition that shows a distinction between the physical and conscious state. It creates the fallicious impression that material ways of thinking about past experiences fail to refer to the actual felt experiences themselves.
Netzger, Nancy. "Modes of Remembering The Classical Past" Memory and the Middles Ages. Ed. Nancy Netzger and Virginia Reinburg. Boston: Boston College Museum of Art, 1995.
In layman’s terms when forming a memory, the brain takes what we see, hear, smell, feel and taste and fills in the blank spaces with information that we have perceived from common knowledge and stores it as a memory. But sometimes something happens that is so shocking that the mind grabs hold of the memory and pushes it underground into some inaccessible corner of the unconscious.