When Places Remember: Memory, Trauma and Stories - NGC Articles - September 2026

                                            

Remembering Sites of Trauma

Photographer Haruka Sakaguchi spent two years visiting former Japanese American incarceration camps from the Second World War. In her project The Camps America Built, she photographed survivors and their families returning to these places. For these families, the camps are not simply historical locations. They are sites of trauma and memory. The photographs help preserve experiences that might otherwise be forgotten.

https://thecampsamericabuilt.com/

Remembering Through Travel 

Writer Gary Shteyngart travelled through Uzbekistan, a country he had imagined since childhood through books and pictures of its famous Islamic architecture. His journey shows how books, photographs and stories can create memories of places before we ever visit them. When he finally experienced Uzbekistan, his childhood image of the country met its present reality.

https://www.nationalgeographic.com/travel/article/uzbekistan-silk-road-cities-tourism

Remembering 9/11 - Twenty-five years after September 11, 2001, the memory of 9/11 is also changing. A new generation has grown up without personal memories of the attacks. For them, the event survives through photographs, videos, documentaries, oral histories and stories told by survivors. What was once a living experience is gradually becoming history. 

https://www.imdb.com/title/tt41991040/?ref_=ext_shr_lnk

Can Cells Remember Their Youth? The Science of Reversing Aging

                            

What if aging is not simply a process of decline, but also a loss of cellular memory? A National Geographic article on the emerging science of longevity explores this intriguing possibility through the work of scientists investigating whether old cells can be made to behave like younger ones. At the heart of this research is the discovery that cells carry more than their DNA: they also possess epigenetic information that records which genes should be switched on or off and helps maintain a cell’s identity. Shinya Yamanaka’s discovery of four transcription factors demonstrated that mature cells could be reprogrammed into a younger, stem-cell-like state, suggesting that a cell may retain traces—or a molecular memory—of its earlier potential. Researchers are now attempting to use this principle selectively: rather than completely resetting a cell, they want to restore aspects of its youthful state while preserving its identity. Experiments by Juan Carlos Izpisua Belmonte and others have shown promising results in animals, while researchers including David Sinclair are investigating whether cellular rejuvenation can eventually be applied to humans. Other approaches described in the article, such as eliminating senescent “zombie” cells and manipulating factors in blood, similarly attempt to counter the accumulated biological changes associated with aging. Yet the science remains experimental, and uncontrolled reprogramming can cause cells to lose their identity or become cancerous. The deeper significance of this research lies in its challenge to the idea that aging is an entirely irreversible biological journey. If cells retain molecular traces of their youth, aging may involve not only damage and deterioration but also changes in the way cellular information is stored and expressed. The emerging field of cellular reprogramming therefore raises a fascinating possibility: perhaps the future of longevity will not simply involve repairing old cells, but learning how to read, restore and carefully rewrite the cellular memories of youth.

https://www.nationalgeographic.com/health/article/end-of-aging-cellular-reprogramming-longevity#:~:text=Are%20We%20on%20the%20Brink,a%20thing%20of%20the%20past.

Kuwait’s Invasion: War, Trauma and Memory - Article Summary

                            

The article revisits the 1990 Iraqi invasion of Kuwait not merely as a geopolitical conflict but as a story of war, trauma, displacement and memory. For Indian migrant workers, especially those from Kerala, the war meant the sudden loss of jobs, wages, savings and the lives they had built abroad. Their experiences reveal how the trauma of war can persist long after the violence ends, shaping memories, migration decisions and ideas of home and security. The evacuation of around 1.7 lakh Indians, aided by diaspora networks and community initiatives, also becomes a memory of resilience and collective action. From a memory studies perspective, the article shows how wars are remembered differently by different communities: while some in Kerala expressed solidarity with Kuwait, others supported Iraq. The changing Malayali neighbourhoods in Kuwait, the desire to invest in land and houses back home, and the stronger community networks can all be understood as material and social responses to traumatic memory. The legacy of the invasion therefore extends beyond 1991, demonstrating how war memories continue to shape migrant identities, communities and the relationship between homeland and diaspora.

A Long Journey Through The Covenant of Water

                                                 

This is a short review of a book that runs to more than 700 pages.

As usual, I began reading it on Kindle, moved to the audiobook, and finally settled on the iBooks version. The book was recommended by Oprah’s Book Club, but I had no plans to read it until I came across Abraham Verghese’s short story Abscond, which is just 38 pages long. It tells the story of the death of a surgeon and how thirteen-year-old Ravi Ramanathan must find a new place for himself in the aftermath of his father’s death. As I neared the end of the novel, I found myself struggling to say goodbye to characters who had lived with me for nearly three months. The book unfolds across generations and possesses an extraordinarily wide literary canvas. Art is celebrated through Philipose, the writer of the Ordinary Man column in Malayala Manorama; Elsie, the painter; and Digby, Rune, and Mariamma, who transform surgery into an art. In many ways, the novel is a celebration of the human hand and its fingers. Water becomes a recurring metaphor for the passage and flow of time, while Mariamma’s research into the Condition is particularly captivating. 

 

One of my favourite passages from the book is, fittingly, a Biblical verse:

“Whatsoever thy hand findeth to do, do it with thy might; for there is no work, nor device, nor knowledge, nor wisdom, in the grave, whither thou goest.”

 

As I ploughed through the 700-plus pages, I felt bored at times, especially when the author became a doctor and got lost in the medical descriptions of surgery and medical terms, for which the author had consulted physicians and nurses. There are repeated references to Gray’s Anatomy and to the art of drawing. The references to traditional Syrian Christian food items even led to several social media posts. The references to Madras Medical College and the description of the Anglo-Indian community in Perambur provided fascinating historical context.

The Right to Be Forgotten: Rethinking Memory in the Digital Age

                             

The Karnataka High Court’s recent recognition of the Right to Be Forgotten raises an important question for the digital age: What happens when society’s ability to remember becomes greater than its ability to forget?

The Court directed authorities and digital platforms to mask the identity of an Iranian woman who had been acquitted of criminal charges. Although the case had ended in acquittal, her name continued to appear in online searches alongside the accusation. The Court recognised that such digital visibility could affect her dignity, reputation and future opportunities.

This case has significant implications for Memory Studies and Digital Memory.

In the pre-digital world, forgetting was often a natural consequence of time. Old newspapers disappeared into archives, court records remained difficult to access, and memories gradually faded. The internet has changed this relationship between remembering and forgetting. Today, a person’s past can be retrieved within seconds through a simple search.

But preservation is not the same as permanent visibility.

A court record may need to remain part of the historical and legal archive. Yet that does not necessarily mean that an individual’s name should remain permanently associated with an accusation that ended in acquittal. The distinction between preserving information and making it continuously searchable is therefore crucial.

From the perspective of Memory Studies, search engines have become powerful memory-making institutions. They do not merely store information; through indexing, ranking and algorithms, they determine which parts of the past become most visible. An accusation may therefore become a person’s dominant digital memory, while the subsequent acquittal remains buried.

This creates a new form of digital mnemonic injustice: the internet may remember an individual’s accusation more effectively than it remembers their vindication.

The Right to Be Forgotten can consequently be understood not simply as a demand to erase history, but as a right to control how one’s past remains accessible. De-indexing or anonymisation can preserve the historical record while reducing the possibility that an outdated episode will define a person’s present identity.

This is particularly important because human beings change, but digital records can remain frozen in time. The person who was once accused may no longer be the person they are today. Digital permanence can prevent this natural process of personal transformation.

The challenge, therefore, is to find a balance between the right of society to remember and the right of individuals to move beyond their past.

The Karnataka High Court’s decision invites us to rethink forgetting not as the opposite of memory, but as an essential part of it. A healthy society needs archives and historical records, but it also needs the possibility of context, change and renewal.

In the digital age, the most important question may no longer be “What should we remember?” but:

“What should remain permanently searchable—and who should have the power to decide?”

The future of Memory Studies may depend as much on understanding responsible forgetting as it does on understanding memory itself.

Onam, Fashion and the Memory of Home

This year’s Onam collections show how fashion can become a powerful archive of memory. Moving beyond festive clothing, designers draw on childhood nostalgia, family traditions, Kerala’s landscapes, flowers, and everyday rituals to create garments that preserve cultural memory in wearable form.

Rouka’s Pulari reimagines Kerala’s landscapes while promoting sustainable and versatile fashion. Pranaah celebrates the flower sellers and artisans whose labour makes Onam possible, transforming floral markets into embroidered textiles. House of Urmi’s Orma revives memories of old-world Onam through hand-painted motifs of pookkalams, swings, birds, and village life. Yarn Culture’s Ivory Edit turns intimate memories—rain-filled courtyards, manjadi seeds, and freshly gathered flowers—into elegant contemporary designs.

From a memory studies perspective, these collections demonstrate that clothing is more than fabric; it is a carrier of personal and collective memory. Through colour, embroidery, motifs, and craftsmanship, fashion becomes a medium that preserves identity, evokes nostalgia, and connects the past with the present. In doing so, these designers transform Onam from a seasonal celebration into a living cultural memory woven into everyday life.

https://www.thehindu.com/life-and-style/fashion/kerala-designers-blend-tradition-with-sustainability-for-their-onam-collections-this-festive-season/article71310992.ece

Capturing home through painting and memory - Article Review

                           

Kashmiri artist Azim Hassan, now based in Foshan, China, uses his paintings to explore themes of home, memory, loss, identity, and the emotional impact of conflict in Kashmir. Living away from his homeland has deepened his perspective, allowing him to depict Kashmir’s changing landscapes, disappearing architectural traditions, and fading cultural memories with a sense of nostalgia.

His paintings often feature solitary figures, vast landscapes, and recurring blue tones, symbolizing spirituality, melancholy, silence, and reflection. Hassan draws inspiration from Kashmir’s natural beauty as well as its troubled history, portraying the tension between beauty and hardship. Works such as The Dubb and the Nab preserve vanishing cultural elements like traditional wooden balconies, while Boy by the Windowside and Beyond the Broken reflect the violence and curfews that marked Kashmir in 2016.

After studying at Jamia Millia Islamia and later receiving a scholarship to the China Academy of Art, Hassan built an international career, exhibiting in several countries while teaching International Baccalaureate (IB) art in China. His stable career has also enabled him to support educational initiatives in Kashmir.

Despite building a life in China, including marrying a Chinese woman, Hassan remains deeply connected to Kashmir. His art serves as a visual archive of a homeland undergoing rapid change, preserving its landscapes, traditions, and collective memories while expressing the enduring emotional legacy of conflict and displacement.

https://www.thehindu.com/society/azim-hassan-kashmiri-artist-paints-memory-loss-home-china/article71182012.ece

Keigo Higashino: Crime Fiction Beyond the Mystery - Article Summary

The death of Keigo Higashino at 68 marks the loss of one of Japan’s greatest contemporary writers. Though celebrated as a master of detective fiction, Higashino used crime novels to explore human psychology, morality, family relationships, and Japanese society, making his work far more than traditional whodunits.

His novels focus less on who committed the crime and more on why it happened. Through a slow, thoughtful unraveling of motives, he reveals the emotional and moral complexities behind every mystery. Books like Newcomer, The Devotion of Suspect X, Journey Under the Midnight Sun, Malice, and The Final Curtain showcase his ability to blend suspense with profound insights into human nature.

Higashino’s characters are morally complex, often blurring the line between innocence and guilt. His stories also offer vivid portraits of contemporary Japan, capturing its traditions, social changes, and everyday life.

His posthumous novel, Eternal Memory, continues the Detective Galileo series and serves as a fitting tribute to a writer who elevated crime fiction into a powerful exploration of conscience, memory, and the human condition.

LitRadar - July 21, 2026 - Henri Bergson and the Philosophy of Memory

French philosopher Henri Bergson transformed memory studies with his 1896 book Matter and Memory. He rejected the idea that memories are simply stored in the brain, arguing instead that memory is a dynamic flow of consciousness, or duration (durée). Bergson distinguished between habit memory, which enables automatic skills like riding a bicycle or typing, and pure memory, which preserves our personal experiences and recollections. While habit memory serves practical action, pure memory connects us to our lived past. To explain memory, Bergson introduced the Memory Cone, where the base represents the vast store of past experiences and the apex represents the body acting in the present. The mind continually selects and reshapes memories according to present needs rather than merely retrieving them. Bergson’s ideas continue to influence memory studies, cognitive science, and literary theory. His philosophy inspired modernist writers such as Marcel Proust and Virginia Woolf, while contemporary researchers increasingly view remembering as an active process of reconstruction rather than simple recall. Even today, Bergson’s concept of memory remains central to discussions of identity, trauma, and digital memory. 

LitRadar - July 20, 2026 - The Blind Assassin and Memory Studies

                  

In Margaret Atwood’s The Blind Assassin (2000), memory functions as both a fractured lens and a means of survival. Narrated as the memoir of the elderly Iris Chase, the novel reconstructs family history through fragmented recollections shaped by trauma, guilt, and old age. From a memory studies perspective, the novel explores trauma and unreliable narration, showing how painful experiences lead to selective remembering and forgetting, making memory subjective rather than objective. The novel also reflects Paul Ricoeur’s concept of narrative identity, as Iris uses writing to reinterpret her past and construct a coherent sense of self. The embedded novel, The Blind Assassin, blurs the boundaries between memory and fiction, revealing hidden truths. Finally, Atwood employs historiographic metafiction by combining personal memories with historical events and documentary fragments. This suggests that both history and memory are constructed narratives shaped by interpretation rather than fixed truths. 

LitRadar - July 19,2026 - Fragments of the Past: Memory and Meaning in Aftersun

Aftersun is a profound meditation on memory, showing how childhood experiences acquire new meanings when revisited in adulthood. The film reflects the reconstructive nature of memory, suggesting that remembrance is shaped as much by the present as by the past. The DV camcorder footage functions as an archive of memory, preserving moments while also revealing their incompleteness. Through Sophie’s recollections, the film explores nostalgia, absence, and emotional inheritance, illustrating how memory is selective, fragmented, and continually reinterpreted. Rather than simply recovering the past, Aftersun demonstrates that remembering is an act of meaning-making, where ordinary moments become deeply significant over time.

https://www.theguardian.com/film/2022/may/21/aftersun-review-beach-holiday-with-paul-mescal-and-daughter-is-a-sunny-delight

LitRadar - July 18, 2026 - Music, Memory, and the Brain

                          

In Musicophilia, neurologist Oliver Sacks shows that music is far more than entertainment—it is deeply connected to the brain, identity, and memory. His clinical stories reveal unusual musical experiences. Some people with hearing loss develop musical hallucinations, hearing songs that are not actually playing. One man, after being struck by lightning, suddenly felt compelled to become a pianist. Others with severe amusia cannot make sense of music at all, hearing it as noise rather than melody. Sacks also highlights music’s therapeutic value. Rhythm can help people with Parkinson’s disease move when they are otherwise frozen, while familiar songs can awaken memories and emotions in people with Alzheimer’s. Studies of music and memory suggest why this happens: familiar songs engage emotion, movement, and autobiographical memory at the same time. A song from the past can bring back a person, place, or feeling with remarkable force. For people with dementia, personalized music can encourage recognition, conversation, and connection. Music, Sacks suggests, can remain meaningful even when words and memories begin to fade.

LitRadar - 17 July, 2026 - WHO’s New Roadmap to Preventing Dementia and Cognitive Decline

                      

Dementia is a growing global health challenge, affecting more than 57 million people worldwide and adding nearly 10 million new cases each year. It is not a normal or inevitable part of ageing, though it becomes more common after 65. Caused by diseases that progressively damage the brain, dementia affects memory, thinking and everyday functioning, and can also lead to changes in mood, behaviour and motivation. Alzheimer’s disease accounts for an estimated 60–70% of dementia cases. Other forms include vascular dementia, dementia with Lewy bodies and frontotemporal dementia. Dementia can also arise after stroke, repeated brain injuries, harmful alcohol use, certain infections such as HIV, or nutritional deficiencies. The impact reaches far beyond cognitive symptoms. Dementia can reduce a person’s independence, dignity and safety, while placing considerable emotional, social and financial pressure on families and caregivers. WHO estimates the condition costs the global economy about $1.3 trillion annually, with unpaid care by relatives and friends accounting for roughly half of that figure. While there is currently no cure, WHO says up to 45% of dementia cases may be preventable or delayed by addressing modifiable risks throughout life. Its updated guidance highlights regular physical activity, stopping tobacco use, reducing alcohol intake and following a healthy diet. It also stresses the value of social connection, cognitive training and managing health conditions such as high blood pressure, diabetes and high cholesterol. For the first time, WHO recommends reducing exposure to air pollution as part of dementia prevention. Hearing aids may also lower risk for some people. However, the organisation advises against taking vitamin B or E, omega-3 supplements or multivitamins solely to prevent dementia unless a deficiency has been diagnosed, as evidence of benefit remains insufficient. Integrating dementia prevention into broader services for noncommunicable diseases, mental health and brain health could help more people live longer, healthier and more independent lives. 

LitRadar - July 16, 2026 - Football, Power and Collective Memory in Kerala and West Bengal

The article shows that the World Cup is shaped by money, politics, corruption, and sportswashing—especially in the case of Qatar 2022. Yet football still retains a powerful emotional appeal, bringing joy, nostalgia, and collective excitement to fans. In Kerala and West Bengal, football is part of collective memory. In West Bengal, clubs such as Mohun Bagan and East Bengal evoke memories of nationalism, Partition, migration, and local identity. In Kerala, football lives through village matches, school grounds, the Santosh Trophy legacy, and passionate support for Brazil and Argentina. In both states, football connects people to childhood, community, rivalry, and shared public celebration.

LitRadar - July 15, 2026 - Everyday Stories, Memory, and the Making of Identity

                    

Narrative, Memory and Everyday Life (2005) is a peer-reviewed collection of research papers edited by Nancy Kelly, Christine Horrocks, Kate Milnes, Brian Roberts, and David Robinson. Emerging from the University of Huddersfield’s Narrative and Memory Research Group, it examines how people use stories and memories to understand everyday life. The book explores the gap between lived experience and the stories people later talk about it. It gives importance to “small stories”—ordinary conversations, brief encounters, and daily reflections—that shape identity as much as major life events. Across sociology, psychology, and qualitative research, the contributors show that memory is not a fixed record of the past but an active tool people used to interpret change, manage transitions, and imagine the future. It also considers how people use narratives to understand everyday risks and uncertainties.

LitRadar - July 14, 2026 - Walter Benjamin and the Revolutionary Power of Memory

Walter Benjamin transformed the way we think about memory by arguing that it is not a passive archive of the past but an active force that shapes our understanding of history. For Benjamin, memory is more than recollection—it is an ethical and political act that can recover forgotten voices and challenge official historical narratives.

One of his most famous observations is that “memory is not an instrument for surveying the past but its theater.” Memory is not a storage space where events remain fixed; instead, it is a living arena where the past is continually reinterpreted in light of the present. Every act of remembering gives new meaning to past experiences. Benjamin was also critical of traditional history, which often presents a continuous story of progress written by the victors. He urged historians to “brush history against the grain” by recovering the experiences of the oppressed, the marginalized, and those excluded from dominant narratives. Through remembrance (Eingedenken), he believed that forgotten fragments of history could be redeemed and given renewed significance.

His famous image of the Angel of History, inspired by Paul Klee’s Angelus Novus, captures this vision. The angel looks back at history and sees not progress but a growing pile of ruins created by war, violence, and suffering, while an unstoppable storm pushes the angel into the future. The image reminds us that history must be viewed from the perspective of those who have endured its tragedies. In Berlin Childhood around 1900, Benjamin compares memory to an archaeological excavation. Just as an archaeologist uncovers hidden artifacts, memories must be carefully unearthed to reveal forgotten meanings and connections.

Benjamin’s ideas continue to shape memory studies, cultural studies, trauma studies, and postcolonial theory. His work encourages us to question dominant histories, recover marginalized voices, and recognize that remembering is not simply about preserving the past—it is about creating a more just understanding of the present.

LitRadar - July 13, 2026 - The Buried Giant: Memory, Forgetting, and Fragile Peace

Kazuo Ishiguro’s The Buried Giant is his most unusual novel, set in post-Arthurian Britain where a mysterious mist causes people to forget their past. The story follows an elderly couple, Axl and Beatrice, on a journey to find their son, only to discover that their search is also a quest to recover forgotten memories. Though populated with dragons, knights, and mythical creatures, the novel is less a fantasy than a philosophical exploration of memory. Ishiguro uses the fading of personal and collective memories to ask whether forgetting can preserve love and peace, or whether remembering painful truths is ultimately unavoidable. At its core, The Buried Giant is a moving reflection on memory, identity, and reconciliation, reminding readers that both individuals and nations are shaped as much by what they forget as by what they remember.

 

https://www.theguardian.com/books/2016/jan/27/buried-giant-kazuo-ishiguro-review-nicholas-lezard

 

 

LitRadar - July 12, 2026 - Justice Begins with Remembering: Memory and Forgetting in The Sheep Detectives

At first glance, The Sheep Detectives appears to be a light-hearted mystery featuring an unusually intelligent flock of sheep solving the murder of their beloved shepherd. Yet beneath its charming premise lies a thoughtful exploration of memory, grief, justice, and forgetting. The sheep are able to investigate the crime because they refuse to let their shepherd’s memory fade. Their shared memories—shaped by the detective stories he once read to them—become the foundation for uncovering the truth. The film suggests that justice begins with remembering. A crime cannot be solved, nor can accountability be achieved, if the past is ignored or deliberately forgotten. At the same time, the story acknowledges that remembering is painful. The shepherd’s death leaves the flock grieving, and forgetting initially appears to offer emotional relief. However, the film makes an important distinction between forgetting as a natural response to loss and willful forgetting that conceals uncomfortable truths. While the former may ease suffering, the latter becomes an obstacle to justice. Viewed through the lens of memory studies, The Sheep Detectives highlights the importance of collective memory. No single sheep possesses the complete story, but together their memories reveal what really happened. The film reminds us that communities often preserve the past through shared recollections, making memory both a social and an ethical act. The Sheep Detectives argues that healing does not come from erasing painful memories but from learning to live with them. Remembering those we have lost keeps their presence alive while also guiding us toward truth and accountability. In this quietly profound mystery, justice is found not on the other side of forgetting, but on the other side of memory.

LitRadar - July 11, 2026 - Persepolis: Memory, Identity, and the Power of Cinema

                         

Persepolis (2007) is a remarkable animated adaptation of Marjane Satrapi’s autobiographical graphic novel. Using elegant black-and-white animation, the film tells the story of a young Iranian girl growing up during the Islamic Revolution and her struggle to preserve her identity in the face of political repression and exile. Rather than focusing solely on history, Persepolis presents a deeply personal coming-of-age journey shaped by family, freedom, and resilience. From the perspective of Memory Studies, Persepolis demonstrates how cinema can function as a powerful medium of remembrance. The film transforms personal memories into cultural memory, preserving lived experiences that might otherwise be forgotten or overshadowed by official historical narratives. It shows how autobiographical films not only document the past but also shape collective understanding, making Persepolis an enduring example of the intersection between memory, identity, history, and the art of filmmaking. 

LitRadar - July 9, 2026 - Memory Studies and Phantoms in the Brain

 

Phantoms in the Brain by V. S. Ramachandran and Sandra Blakeslee is significant for Memory Studies because it shows that memory is an active, reconstructive process linked to the body, emotion, and identity. Through neurological case studies such as phantom limbs and Capgras delusion, the authors demonstrate how the brain stores, reshapes, and sometimes distorts memories. The book highlights the role of embodied memory,  neuroplasticity, and the close relationship between memory and the construction of the self.