Memory As Resistance in Contemporary Women's Literature
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Loyola University Chicago Loyola eCommons Dissertations Theses and Dissertations 2010 Storied Memories: Memory as Resistance in Contemporary Women's Literature Sarah Katherine Foust Vinson Loyola University Chicago Follow this and additional works at: https://ecommons.luc.edu/luc_diss Part of the Women's Studies Commons Recommended Citation Foust Vinson, Sarah Katherine, "Storied Memories: Memory as Resistance in Contemporary Women's Literature" (2010). Dissertations. 176. https://ecommons.luc.edu/luc_diss/176 This Dissertation is brought to you for free and open access by the Theses and Dissertations at Loyola eCommons. It has been accepted for inclusion in Dissertations by an authorized administrator of Loyola eCommons. For more information, please contact [email protected]. This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 3.0 License. Copyright © 2010 Sarah Katherine Foust Vinson LOYOLA UNIVERSITY CHICAGO STORIED MEMORIES: MEMORY AS RESISTANCE IN CONTEMPORARY WOMEN’S LITERATURE A DISSERTATION SUBMITTED TO THE FACULTY OF THE GRADUATE SCHOOL IN CANDIDACY FOR THE DEGREE OF DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY PROGRAM IN ENGLISH BY SARAH K. FOUST VINSON CHICAGO, IL MAY 2010 Copyright by Sarah K. Foust Vinson, 2010 All rights reserved. ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS I would like to thank all of the people who made this dissertation possible, starting with my wonderful professors in the English Department at Loyola University Chicago. Dr. Paul Jay encouraged me to integrate my interest in the psychology of memory with the field of literature, and he always provided a kind word when I needed it most. Dr. Harveen Mann challenged me to consider the larger implications of my work and supported me throughout the process with an encouraging smile and a positive attitude. Most importantly, I would like to thank my committee chair, Dr. J. Brooks Bouson, who with seemingly tireless effort provided an abundance of guidance as she patiently read and edited draft after draft of my dissertation. She has ultimately helped me to become a better reader, writer, and scholar. I would also like to take a moment to thank my mother, Lynne Foust. Over the course of my life as a student, she has read, edited, and suggested revision ideas for every essay I have written. The fact that she was still willing to take on this task when it came to a dissertation is admirable, in itself. But in addition, she consistently inspired me when I faced writer‟s block, chastised me when I procrastinated, and encouraged me when the pressures of teaching, writing, and motherhood seemed too much. Not only did she instill in me a love of books, but she has also held my hand throughout this scholarly journey, and for this, thank you just doesn‟t seem to be enough. iii I must also acknowledge and honor all of the family and friends who cared for my children so that I could research, write, and revise Storied Memories. Without people like Aimee Krall-Lanoue and Aaron Krall, Krista and Peter Svach, Ashlee Parker, Kayla Rosenthal, Vicki and Nathan Foiles, and my parents, Lynne and John Foust, I could easily still be researching Chapter One. Finally, I would like to thank my husband, Kyle Vinson, and my daughters, Hannah and Paige. Without their support, patience, and constant reminder of what is truly important in life, I would never have made it to where I am today. iv For my mother TABLE OF CONTENTS ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS iii CHAPTER ONE: INTRODUCTION 1 Autobiographical Memory and Contemporary Memory Theory 3 Memory, Narrative, and the Construction of Personal and Collective Identity 7 Storied Memories in Contemporary Women‟s Literature 14 CHAPTER TWO: NARRATIVE POSSIBILITIES AND FRAMED MEMORIES IN MASO‟S THE ART LOVER AND ATWOOD‟S THE HANDMAID’S TALE 29 Frames Inherited from the Past and Adopted for the Future in Carole Maso‟s The Art Lover 42 Frames from the Past that Extend Into the Future in Margaret Atwood‟s The Handmaid’s Tale 69 CHAPTER THREE: TRAUMATIC MEMORY AND NARRATIVE HEALING IN ALLISON‟S BASTARD OUT OF CAROLINA AND DANTICAT‟S BREATH, EYES, MEMORY 95 Storied Integration in Dorothy Allison‟s Bastard Out of Carolina 109 Familial Trauma in Edwidge Danticat‟s Breath, Eyes, Memory 141 CHAPTER FOUR: RELATIONAL MEMORIES OF THE SELF AND THE OTHER IN KINGSOLVER‟S THE POISONWOOD BIBLE AND ROY‟S THE GOD OF SMALL THINGS 174 Memory and Complicity in Barbara Kingsolver‟s The Poisonwood Bible 187 Remembering for the Other in Arundhati Roy‟s The God of Small Things 216 CHAPTER FIVE: COLLECTIVE MEMORIES AND COMMUNAL IDENTITY IN NAYLOR‟S THE WOMEN OF BREWSTER PLACE AND MORRISON‟S PARADISE 243 Walled Memories in Gloria Naylor‟s The Women of Brewster Place 253 Creating and Controlling History in Toni Morrison‟s Paradise 277 CHAPTER SIX: IN CONCLUSION 309 BIBLIOGRAPHY 319 VITA 342 vi CHAPTER ONE INTRODUCTION Within the last twenty years, critical texts and studies from various fields investigating concepts of memory have steadily multiplied.1 Popular interest in literary genres that rely on memory, such as memoir and autobiography, has grown considerably, tripling from the 1940s to the 1990s in a linear progression.2 Indeed, as Leigh Gilmore notes, “Memoir has become the genre in the skittish period around the turn of the millennium” (1, her emphasis). Thus, the emergent field of memory theory, which draws upon texts and studies from many different disciplines, including psychology, sociology, philosophy, cognitive science, and literary theory, provides a relevant, useful lens through which to examine not only autobiography, but also fiction that emphasizes characters‟ autobiographical memories.3 Accordingly, my aim in Storied Memories: 1 For example, when one performs a keyword search for the term “memory” in the MLA database for the years 1970 to 1980, one finds 2,765 entries. From 1980 to 1990, this number increased to 3,781 entries. From 1990 to 2000, the number nearly doubled, showing 7,561 articles and books focusing on memory. This number continues to grow in the 2000s and reached 23,142 entries at the end of 2009. This is not only an indication of an interest in memory in literary studies, but common growth patterns can also be found in the fields of psychology and other social sciences. 2 This growth was noted by theorist Leigh Gilmore after performing a WorldCat Database search for English language volumes categorized as memoir and autobiography (1). 3 There is a lot of theoretical work on the factors that distinguish the novel from the autobiography as generic categories. However, as Suzanne Nalbantian articulates, writers of either genre give us “their characters, images, and artistic technique as clues to the workings of memory” (5), even as she focuses on primarily autobiographical texts in her study Memory in Literature: From Rousseau to Neuroscience. Likewise, Leigh Gilmore notes, “some writers move away from recognizably autobiographical forms even as they engage autobiography‟s central questions” (7), questions that focus on the dynamics of memory in 1 2 Memory as Resistance in Contemporary Women’s Literature is to explore the power for resistance contained within narratives of personal memory. This new approach to examining women‟s literature reveals that memory, and its articulation through narrative in both autobiographical and fictional writings, can shape the stories authors tell and, in turn, provide opportunities for resistance to oppression. Since narrative provides a means to communicate memory, and it is the primary way that autobiographical memory is recorded, both autobiography and fiction can act, in Suzanne Nalbantian‟s terms, as “a laboratory for the workings of the mind” (1). It is in literature that we can examine both the workings of memory and the ways that authors use concepts of memory in their works to demonstrate memory‟s dynamic and changing nature, as well as its power as a tool for resistance. To limit the scope of Storied Memories, I investigate the ways that current psychological theories about memory illuminate contemporary women‟s autobiography and fiction by highlighting the multiplicity and ambiguity in characters‟ conceptions of selfhood, cultural identity, and historical knowledge. Women‟s literature is an important field for studying the role of memory and resistance, especially since women‟s histories and stories have traditionally been silenced within cultures dominated by patriarchal norms. Thus, women‟s stories of the past—that is, storied accounts of their memories— become vital records of personal or communal histories that otherwise may not be voiced or even acknowledged. A contemporary recognition of this can be found in Toni the lives of the characters. Thus, I see both novels and autobiography as spaces to investigate the functions and implications of memory in literature. 3 Morrison‟s assertion that her job as a “writer who is black and a woman” is to “rip that veil drawn over „proceedings too terrible to relate.‟” She continues, “The exercise is . critical for a person who is black, or who belongs to any marginalized category, for, historically, we were seldom invited to participate in the discourse even when we were its topic” (“The Site of Memory” 110-11).4 In a broader sense, Morrison‟s task is shared by many women writers in the late twentieth and early twenty-first centuries who are revealing women‟s memories and histories in new and exciting ways. The stories they tell of the past, and their stories of memory in general, sometimes narrate histories of violence and terror—“proceedings too terrible