On the postulates of Memory(Articles Based on the theme of "The Memory",<Special Issue>The Memory)

DOI Web Site

Bibliographic Information

Other Title
  • 記憶の措定をめぐって(特集論文年間テーマ<記憶>,<特集>記憶)
  • 記憶の措定をめぐって
  • キオク ノ ソテイ オ メグッテ

Search this article

Abstract

In this paper the author analyses the difficulties related to the concept of memory through the reading of a poem by the Japanese modern poet Ogata Kamenosuke- "The Octagonal Clock". In an attempt to elucidate the withdrawal of memory every time one tries to grasp it, the text redefines the relationship between memory and language insisting on the rhetorical dimension of memory, which permits tropical displacements "prior" to those of language. This dimension, however, does not constitute some kind of "truth" or "essence" of memory. In its withdrawal memory appears as always not in its place and at the same time makes possible the constant abuse that is made of it. The withdrawal - a structural necessity that cannot be avoided - is revealed through the language of the poem because the poetic language itself repeats the rhetorical model while thematizing it. Thus "The Octagonal Clock" could be read as an allegory of the withdrawal. The interpretation of the allegory has to follow its own itinerary - from the way memory escapes the mastery of the subject remaining always presupposed in her or his constitution, through the complicated relationship of the virtual object of memory with actuality and the problem of temporality this relationship poses, to the difference and analogy between memory and imagination on the one hand, and memory and death on the other. The hope of the author is that this itinerary will lead to a reconsideration of all the problems of memory and thus will prevent at least some of the abuses that are made of it today.

Journal

Details 詳細情報について

Report a problem

Back to top