Scrutinizing the discursive nature of ‘memory’ in Amy Tan’s the kitchen god’s wife & Ian McEwan’s The child in time

Abstract

Memory transcends the conventional socio- cultural paradigms, reproducing past, dynamically. Omnipresence of memory exposes it to miscellaneous interpretive strategies. Recalling is prone to egocentric fictionalization that defies the time/ space confinements. Accordingly, memory modifies into an influential narrative instrument to picture the unpresentable. As a discursive discourse, it appropriates contextually; it may preserve the dissident marginalized social voices such as migrant communities or it is utilized to protect individuals from psychological breakdowns, in traumatic events. Confessional nature of memory reveals the bitter familial, diasporic secrets, leading to constitution of a collective identity, among migrants. This study seeks to explore the contingent operations of memory in diverse contextual structures; in The Kitchen God’s Wife, by Amy Tan, memory operates as a continual strife to formulate a sense of belonging; whereas, The Child in Time by Ian McEwan is the manifestation of memory’s performance, in an outstanding individual level.