LANGUAGE IN INDIA

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Volume 24:10 October 2024
ISSN 1930-2940

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Retrieving Memory through Sensory Cues in Ken Liu’s The Paper Menagerie: A Supposition of Recalling Memory

Ms Sowmya Shree S., M.A., M.Phil., Ph.D. Research Scholar and
Dr V. David Arputha Raj M.A., M.Phil., Ph.D.


Courtesy: www.amazon.com

Abstract

Memory is the picturisation of past events and the process of storing events and incidents with priority in the long-term memory (LTM) or the short-term memory (STM). It is accordingly a microscopic chemical change in the brain between the neurons at the connecting point. Bringing memory into literature serves as a compendium of different cultures, cultural and collective memories, identities and social disputes besides the fact that it also serves for imaginaries, aesthetics and philosophy. This paper aims to explore the retrieval of memory through the secondary cues as represented in the postmodern short story “The Paper Menagerie” by Ken Liu, an American science fiction and fantasy writer who follows an unconventional and non-sequential narration. The secondary cues are identified by the application of the Level of Processing theory by Fergus I. M. Craik and Robert S. Lockhart to specify the processing of how memory is treated with stimuli which are the auditory and visual cues.

Keywords: Ken Liu, The Paper Menagerie, Level of Processing, auditory memory, visual memory, memory cues, stimuli.

In his work "Talks to Teachers on Psychology: And to Students on Some of Life’s Ideals," William James defines memory as the recollection of past events, distinguished by its ability to store these events in long-term or short-term memory through microscopic chemical changes in the brain. (James, 117) Memories do not possess physical properties; rather, they are abstract generalisations in the process of recollection. The faculty of memory is constructed through actions stemming from various circumstances.

Auditory and visual memory are specific types of memory processing, crucial to learning, re-learning, and memory retrieval, with sensory cues playing a key role in the processes of encoding, remembering, forgetting, and retrieval. According to the APA Dictionary of Psychology, auditory memory is “the memory for information obtained through hearing,” and can be retained in linguistic or non-linguistic forms, such as words and music. Similarly, visual memory is defined as “the capacity to remember previously seen visual images.” (James 117)

From classic literature till now, the understanding of memory and the accumulation of its knowledge has taken various trends in literature. Glenn W. Most in his “Memory and Forgetting in the Aeneid” deliberately writes how memory has been a component of thought from the classical age until now. He writes, “But no other Roman poet seems to have been so obsessed with memory as Virgil was, no other one seems to have located the phenomenon of memory so conspicuously at the very center of his poetry”. (Most 155) From classic literature till now, the understanding of memory and the accumulation of its knowledge has taken various trends in literature. Glenn W. Most in his “Memory and Forgetting in the Aeneid” deliberately writes how memory has been a component of thought from the classical age until now. He writes, “But no other Roman poet seems to have been so obsessed with memory as Virgil was, no other one seems to have located the phenomenon of memory so conspicuously at the very center of his poetry”. (Most 155)

This is only the beginning part of the article. PLEASE CLICK HERE TO READ THE ENTIRE ARTICLE IN PRINTER-FRIENDLY VERSION.

Ms Sowmya Shree S., M.A., M.Phil., Ph.D. Research Scholar
sowmya.efl@buc.edu.in

Dr V. David Arputha Raj M.A., M.Phil., Ph.D.
Assistant Professor
Department of English and Foreign Languages
Bharathiar University, Coimbatore - 641046
davidarputharaj@buc.edu.in
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