Memory and Literature Series 2 - Milan Kundera, Yoko Ogawa and Saddat Hassan Manto

 

Part 1 - Milan Kundera & The Politics of Memory 

The French-Czech novelist Milan Kundera was born in the Czech Republic and has lived in France since 1975. Milan Kundera's works are about the political importance of memory. This can be termed as the 'politics of memory. Kundera's 'The Book of Laughter and Forgetting is a classic example of this. The central importance of both individual memory and collective memory is underlined in this novel. It is always the personal/collective vs the official. The reference to Clementis and Gottwald is an example. Even though Clementis was removed from the official document (except for his fur hat) he exists in the mind of the narrator. The official version makes the people forget 'the world at large forgets it faster' ( 'The Book of Laughter and Forgetting' Page 218) The reference to Mirek in the second scene is the example of an individual trying to 'prevent the erasure of history through the vehicle of his memory' For him 'the preservation of memory is a way of resisting power' 

The ideas are summarised from: 

Berlatsky, Eric. “Memory as Forgetting: The Problem of the Postmodern in Kundera's ‘The Book of Laughter and Forgetting’ and Spiegelman's ‘Maus.’” Cultural Critique, no. 55, 2003, pp. 101–151. JSTOR, www.jstor.org/stable/1354650. Accessed 18 Aug. 2021.

Part 2 - Yoko Ogawa and The Memory Police

The Memory Police is a dystopian novel set on an island that is overtaken by the epidemic of forgetting. The embodiment of this memory loss is found in the objects when they disappear. Objects disappear not just from memory but real life also. The book was published in the Japanese in the year 1994. The book was translated by Stephen Snyder and published in 2019. The disappearance of objects (memory) is enforced by Memory Police. Some of the objects that disappear are roses, birds, stamps, green beans etc. First, the object disappears and then the memory of that thing vanishes. The third stage is the memory of forgetting also disappears. The novel is narrated through the eyes of a nameless novelist. Her mother was a sculptor. The novelist is working on a novel where the protagonist is losing her voice. Each of the objects that disappear becomes a metaphor or a symbol. The birds represent freedom or flight. Roses represent desire and love. The ideas presented here are from the article which appeared in The New Yorker. 

You may read the full article by clicking on the link given below. https://www.newyorker.com/books/under-review/how-the-memory-police-makes-you-see

Part 3 - Saadat Hasan Manto 

He is described as the most widely read and the most controversial short-story writer in Urdu. His literary career spanned over two decades. He published twenty-two collections of short stories, one novel, five collections of radio plays, and three collections of essays. His greatest works were produced in the last seven years of his life. His life is inextricably linked to the Partition of 1947. He is also part of the research in Memory studies about the Partition. His love for the city of Bombay is well-known. He wrote mostly about the city. He wrote about prostitution, religious superstition, adolescent anxiety, sex, the Partition of India and Bombay cinema in the thirties and forties. For Manto, Bombay served as a direct material for his writing. James Joyce had Dublin, Saul Bellow had Chicago and for Manto it was Bombay. It is said that a writer like Manto could evoke his world with a single detail. The limp ten-rupee note in the story 'Ten Rupees' is an example. Manto is not taught wildly in schools, even though it was easy to understand him. He was locked up in the world of Urdu literature. When it comes to Manto's writing style, what is important is the word 'economy'. Like the great masters Pushkin, Gandhi and R.K Narayan. The quality of writing is something that makes Manto's writing powerful. In the story 'Ten Rupee', the detailed description of Bombay is not there, but 'the factory wall with the stench of urine is a powerful detail about the city. Manto admired and read the works of Manto admired and read the works of Guy de Maupassant. The ideas presented here is culled from the Introduction written by Aatish Taseer to the book - Manto - Selected Stories. Aatish Taseer has translated some of the stories by Manto.