A wall of stuff: Object itinerary as a framework for writing the souvenir

Abstract

Both creative writers and scholars of material culture have recognised the power of objects; the way they can transcend their intended functions and exhibit a quality that is lively and even agential. In my previous career as a travel journalist, I amassed an extensive collection of souvenirs that are now making such claims on my creative writing practice. This article seeks to conceptualise the active quality of those souvenirs in relation to processes of autobiographical memory – that is, how they shape and mediate the ways we remember and forget our lives – and considers how creative writers might best respond to and represent this attribute. It proposes that the object itinerary, an iteration of the object biography concept, is a useful framework for the creative writer seeking to engage with not only the character and origins of the power of souvenirs and other objects, but also the ways they work in relation to memory.