Document Type : Original Article
Author
Assistant Professor, Department of English Language and Literature, Velayat University, Iranshahr, Iran
Abstract
Ricoeur distinguishes the abuses of memory on three levels: the pathological-therapeutic, the practical, and the ethico-political. He defines “blocked memory” as memory in which the work of remembering and the work of mourning have been obstructed. This study examines the forms of such memory in Houshang Golshiri’s Prince Ehtejab (1969) and Kazuo Ishiguro’s The Remains of the Day (1989). Both novels look back from a historical present on a collapsed order to which the protagonist’s identity was bound. The study follows an analytical-comparative method in the form of a theoretical-thematic cross-reading. Six textual indicators were defined in advance and traced in both novels, and the dominance of each form was assessed according to the structural position of its instances. The findings show that repetition compulsion dominates Golshiri’s novel, while self-justification dominates Ishiguro’s. In both, the practical and pathological levels interpenetrate, but in opposite directions. In Stevens, the ideology of service takes the place of mourning. In the Prince, substituting the maid for the dead wife carries with it the justificatory history of his ancestors. Both characters are implicated in the violence of the order to which they belong and are directly responsible for acts they themselves committed. Neither does justice to the victims, and the unfinished work of recognition is left to the reader. This article offers the first Ricoeurian reading of Prince Ehtejab and the first comparison of the novel with The Remains of the Day.
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