A Post War Society Through Landscapes Of Memory And Oblivion

He served the Haitian President François “Papa Doc” Duvalier who won the presidency in 1957 until 1971 (Smith 1). The Tonton Macoutes terrorized the nation through oppressive schemes such as “spying, beatings, [and] executions” (Collins 130). Both of the historical frames mentioned display power against the powerless. The terms “post memory” and “trauma theory” are reference to the complicated structure of memory that moves through generations while disturbing individuals that do not have exposure to the original event and are therefore “possessed by a history they had never lived” (Epstein 3). Literature helps readers to understand the multigenerational impact of traumatic events like the Holocaust and the outcome of forceful militants like the Tonton Macoutes. In “Book of the Dead” by Edwidge Danticat and “Cattle Car Complex” by Thane Rosenbaum, the main characters Adam and Ka reveal that though never experiencing trauma directly, post trauma impacts their imagination, identity and personal relationships. The significance of post-memory demonstrates the profound consequences of wrongdoing and error in political

Jamaica Kincaid successfully convinces her audience that post colonial impact still remains. Through the use of rhetorical appeals such as pathos, logos and imagery she successfully explains her claim. Through this novel she gives an insightful explanation of what antigua is like from a person who comes from that area. Kincaid being born in antigua, she gives us a view from her eyes on what antigua is really like while going through post colonial impact. Kincaid incorporates historical background in text to convince her audience that this impact is holding back antigua from the good and enjoyable place it can really be. She develops a connection with the audience when she makes them feel like the tourist that is figuring out what's going on in the background of antigua. This connection serves as pathos as it makes the audience feel the emotion of anger and disappointment for not knowing what mess is really going on in this small island. This demonstration shows how cultures everywhere are affected by postcolonialism and how there is a negative global commonality between tourist and natives.

The reader gets a rare and exotic understanding of a totally foreign and ancient culture experiencing the growing pains of colonial expansion during the British domination

Gary Disher’s socially provocative Australian historical drama novel The Divine Wind (1998) set in the Australian pearling town of Broome, provides a thought-provoking and contemporary outlook on racial prejudice, isolation and the loss of rights to adulthood during the onset of World War11. Disher establishes this through a range of characters of differing ages and cultural backgrounds, evoking a war-devastated Australia and its effects on young adults forced to leave their childhood behind. Written as a series of melancholic recollections, the seemingly simple novel conveys the messages of a violent history, as it explores the complexity of the relationships between racially diverse characters during the onset of WW11. The novel follows a young and ambitious Hartley Penrose who faces challenges with discovering his maturity/identity, serving as a transition from his past to his future. The Divine Wind utilizes the characters’ ideas, experiences, beliefs, and values to explore the central themes, the racial prejudice between the white race and other ethnicities, the regional and urban divide and the growing up and loss of rights to adulthood. The Divine Wind utilizes conventions and ideas from the drama genre to communicate these central themes which are still prevalent in today’s modern society.

For years, post-modern writers have foreshadowed what the end of the world would look like through dramatic representations in literary works. Cormac McCarthy’s The Road and Margaret Atwood’s novel, Oryx & Crake, are no exception to this. Delving into the complexities that underlie man’s existence on Earth, these authors use their novels as vehicles to depict a post-apocalyptic world, in which all that once was is reduced to an inconceivable wasteland, both figuratively and literally.

Momaday's book collapses conventional divides between myth and history: by fusing the two he suggests that the conventional white conception of history as an enclosed and protected category is inherently suspect, and without speaking of politics makes a claim for other, equally valuable ways of knowing. However, in this sense his method of storytelling is political, because he suggests that the Indian ways of interpreting experience are just as valid as

The Vietnam War was immensely controversial, and had a great deal of effects in the United States, Vietnam and throughout the entire world. The war had lasting impacts that helped to shape the United States and create what the country is today. Michael H. Hunt’s The Wages of War, published in 1996 and Arnold R. Isaacs’ Competing Memories, published in 1997, both primary sources discussed the aftermath of the Vietnam War. Competing Memories is the more valuable primary source because it does a better job of providing multiperspectivity, provided information on why the Vietnam War made such a large impact, and discussed why the war started. On the other hand, The Wages of War only talked about the effects on Vietnam and Asia.

The dominant idiom of Indian writing today is firmly entrenched in pain, anxiety of displacement, nostalgia, yearning to belong to roots, and so on. Arundhati Roy’s The God of Small Things and Kiran Desai’s The Inheritance of Loss are two such novels that explore the tragedy of man on several levels using different perspectives. Both the novels are about averted culture-clash tragedies, homogeneity vs. heterogeneity, and about Indian sensibilities.

“The Tragedy of war is that it uses man’s best to do man’s worst” wise words from Henry Fosdick. When it comes down to the time where an individual hits rock bottom, a man either do its best or do its worst. Although, Man can do its best and do its worst at the same time. There are many reasons how man’s best can result to man’s worst. Henry Fosdick statement is both true and false.

Eva Hoffman’s memoir, Lost in Translation, is a timeline of events from her life in Cracow, Poland – Paradise – to her immigration to Vancouver, Canada – Exile – and into her college and literary life – The New World. Eva breaks up her journey into these three sections and gives her personal observations of her assimilation into a new world. The story is based on memory – Eva Hoffman gives us her first-hand perspective through flashbacks with introspective analysis of her life “lost in translation”. It is her memory that permeates through her writing and furthermore through her experiences. As the reader we are presented many examples of Eva’s memory as they appear through her interactions. All of these interactions evoke memory,

In the short story “In the Shadow of War” by Ben Okri you can see symbolism being used all throughout the story to develop the theme a child’s innocence can only last for so long. For example Omovo’s father didn’t want him to hear news of the war and told Omovo to turn off the radio, but then it says,”When a danfo bus came, and his father went with it, Omovo turned the radio back on.” This is an example of Omovo’s father trying to shelter him from hearing about what is actually happening in Nigeria, but Omovo just becomes more curious about what is happening. In the quote the radio is used as a symbol to represent the outside world and more specifically the war going on in Nigeria at the time, after hearing about the

It could argued that our common-sense notion of endurance through time is incorrect. That this mistaken self-conception lead us to experience the passage of time. If so, this would be illusory no? And if this enduring ‘me’ is an illusion then so is the passage of time.

In “A Small Place” by Jamaica Kincaid, Kincaid explicitly describes the effects and consequences that imperialism had on Antigua, while implicitly condemning imperialism for the effects and consequences indigenous people endured through allegory. Examining the results of imperialism in a cultural aspect provides a deeper connection for the audience to fathom the struggle people of Antigua experienced. Kincaid illustrates herself as the main protagonist who directly speaks to the audience as if they are the ignorant tourist. Through the utilization of the second person perspective, she immerses the reader emotionally, which through the experience proves to be more captivating.

It is paradoxical to have a course, which revolves round the corrosiveness of faulted Western notions of time and its depiction through abstraction, identify itself with an abstract title but argue for the concreteness and tangibility of the portrayal of time and space. A Place Beyond Time does just that. Containing a vastly abstract title, A Place Beyond Time may at first glance appear to properly relate time as a tangent notion with space. Upon further contemplation, however, it becomes patent that A Place Beyond Time possesses a conspicuous absence present in its philosophy of aloofness from intangibility. And although the name of the course attempts to tackle and manifest the complications of abstract and concrete time, it is through its lack of definition and precision, lack of possession, and lack of sensation of repetition that A Place Beyond Time fails to properly capitalize on this dilemma.

E.M. Forster’s classic novel “A Passage to India” tells the story of a young doctor, Dr. Aziz, and his interactions with the British citizens who are residing in India during the time of the British Raj. Throughout the novel, the reader gets many different viewpoints on the people and the culture of India during this point in history. The reader sees through the eyes of the Indian people primarily through the character of Dr. Aziz, and the perceptions of the British through the characters of Mr. Fielding, Adela Quested, and Mrs. Moore. Through the different characters, and their differing viewpoints, the reader can see that Forster was creating a work that expressed a criticism that he held of the behavior of the British towards their Indian subjects.