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영어

This paper aims to explore the multiple layers in the meaning of rememory in Beloved. Rememory is Morrison’s term for depicting African American’s particular sense of remembering the past, specifically that of slavery. For African Americans, remembering the past is a painful experience because of the horror of slavery. Consequently, African Americans do not want to remember their experience under slavery. The national amnesia which is symptomatic of African American who want to forget the horror of slavery destroys African Americans’ life and their relationships. Although African Americans want to forget the past, the past keeps coming back. Although African Americans try to forget the past, the past keeps the pain of slavery. African Americans overwhelmingly re-experience the past at the same level as shock. Under this condition, African Americans’ relationships such as between self and the black community cannot be constructive. In order to build a positive relationship and transform the unspeakable past into a memorable one, Morrison examines black people’s possible way of remembering: that is, through rememory. Rememory is a strategy for remembering unbearable horrors which have to be faced. In the novel, rememory is a dangerous act because it directly makes one recall the horror and pain of slavery. However, as African Americans share their experience and past, this horrible and destructive power of memory makes African Ameicans recover their relationship. Morrison does not deny that rememory is an extremely dangerous and painful process for African Americans. However, Morrison also suggests the promising role of rememory by showing the progress of African Americans who successfully go through it. The purpose of this paper is to analyze how the fragmented African Americans’ relationships between self and past can be restored through the development of rememory.