| Summary: | 碩士 === 國立中央大學 === 英美語文學研究所 === 96 === This thesis investigates memory in two texts, both of which deal with traumatic experiences. Typically, memory is regarded as a set of past events that are already settled and cannot be changed. But, Mieke Bal identifies the instability and fluidity of it. Memory is not something fix and terminal, it is active and inconclusive. The term trauma has often connected with negative meanings, too. It is psychological damage resulted from the past that keeps influencing present and future. But, the effects of trauma can be positive. Tedeschi, Park and Calhoun see it as the experience that could rebuild lives in important ways. Critics have long been interested in the ways history is reconstructed to intervene the future. They have also become interested in how human fashion memories of the past that give our lives meaning in the present and purpose in the future.
Chapter One explores Steven Spielberg’s 1998 film, Saving Private Ryan. By depicting the trauma of wartime experience, it demonstrating the sacrifices made by the men and women who endured the Great Depression and fought the Second World War. Spielberg shows the trauma of the soldiers during WWII to recover the demonized image the 60s youth counter culture imposed on the war generation. The chapter looks into the ways the film helps to transform the war generation into what Tom Brokaw called the “Greatest Generation” in the nineties. As well as how its emotional appeal reengineers feelings about liberal (or radical) politics of the 60s, represented by the liberal, educated characters Upham and Miller. The issue of current US involvement in the Middle East is conveys by the Jewish character, Mellish, whose death reminds the viewers of Nazi Germany’s persecution of Jewish and encourages them to deliberate on their obligation in preventing similar event from happening in the future.
Chapter Two investigates Morrison’s memory project in Beloved. Morrison also seeks to revive traumatic memory in order to create a better future for African Americans. The novel presents a black community unwilling to confront their past, and thus haunted by the embodiment of it—Beloved. Morrison embodies the traumatic experience of slavery in the horror of Beloved. She does not merely protest slavery, but concerns about its affect on the African American psyche. She believes that community can heal the spiritual crisis of individuals. The novel thus suggests a collective approach that will unite the black community in resisting racial discrimination and allowing African Americans to embrace their future.
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