Actively and passively distorting of memory in Hiroshima Mon Amour

• Main Author: Chang, Nicole Wenlin
• Other Authors: School of Humanities and Social Sciences
• Format: Final Year Project
• Language: English
• Published: 2014
• Subjects: DRNTU::Humanities::Literature::English
• Online Access: http://hdl.handle.net/10356/59144
• Institution: Nanyang Technological University

This essay examines the reliability of memory in Marguerite Duras’ Hiroshima Mon Amour. This essay will analyse both processes of remembering and forgetting, ultimately showing that forgetting is a chief obstacle in remembering. We use our sense of sight to passively remember and we use narration to actively remember. Duras reveals that we are both passive and active participants in the process of remembering past events. When we use our sense of sight to passively remember, the visual images are unreliable because they result in an inaccurate remembering of past events. The senses we use for perception can modify, or even distort, our memories. Likewise, when we use narration to actively remember, we re-create and transform our memories. Whether we passively or actively remember, we will distort our memories.