AI Summary & Key Takeaways
AI InsightThe study concluded that remembering the past helps an individual to free themselves from their painful past, to accept themselves as they are, and to develop a sense of empathy.
📌 3 Key Takeaways
Abstract
Memory is the ability of a living being, especially a human being, to store in the mind the information learned, the events experienced, and to recall them when necessary. Individual memory, on the other hand, consists of memories and information unique to each person. Aleida Assmann, one of the first people to apply memory theory to literature, argues that memory does not revive the past but rather reconstructs it. In the postcolonial period, although many African countries gained political independence from European colonial powers starting from the late 19th century and until the middle of the twentieth century, colonialism continued to impact this country. Postcolonial authors have drawn attention in their works to the impacts of colonial practices by referring to the memories of their characters. In this context, postcolonial literary author Fatou Diome shares the idea of reconstructing colonial memory and the traumas of personal experience. In her work De quoi aimer vivre, which consists of eight different stories, the author offers a historical perspective on the experiences of the colonizers and the colonized by talking about the past of the protagonists. The aim of this study is to examine the effects of colonial understanding on individuals’ lives in Diome’s livre De quoi aimer vivre in the context of Assmann’s theory of individual memory. The study concluded that remembering the past helps an individual to free themselves from their painful past, to accept themselves as they are, and to develop a sense of empathy.