Memory in Literature
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Memory in Literature From Rousseau to Neuroscience Suzanne Nalbantian
Suzanne Nalbantian 2003 Softcover reprint of the hardcover 1st edition 2003 978-0-333-74065-1 All rights reserved. No reproduction, copy or transmission of this publication may be made without written permission. No paragraph of this publication may be reproduced, copied or transmitted save with written permission or in accordance with the provisions of the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988, or under the terms of any licence permitting limited copying issued by the Copyright Licensing Agency, 90 Tottenham Court Road, London W1T 4LP. Any person who does any unauthorised act in relation to this publication may be liable to criminal prosecution and civil claims for damages. The author has asserted her right to be identified as the author of this work in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988. First published 2003 by PALGRAVE MACMILLAN Houndmills, Basingstoke, Hampshire RG21 6XS and 175 Fifth Avenue, New York, N.Y. 10010 Companies and representatives throughout the world PALGRAVE MACMILLAN is the global academic imprint of the Palgrave Macmillan division of St. Martin s Press, LLC and of Palgrave Macmillan Ltd. Macmillan is a registered trademark in the United States, United Kingdom and other countries. Palgrave is a registered trademark in the European Union and other countries. ISBN 978-1-4039-6687-2 ISBN 978-0-230-28712-9 (ebook) DOI 10.1057/9780230287129 This book is printed on paper suitable for recycling and made from fully managed and sustained forest sources. A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library. Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Nalbantian, Suzanne Memory in literature : from Rousseau to neuroscience / Suzanne Nalbantian. p. cm. Includes bibliographical references and index. 1. Memory in literature. 2. Literature, Modern History and criticism. I. Title. PN56.M44 N35 2002 809.93353 dc21 2002026749 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 12 11 10 09 08 07 06 05 04 03
To my husband, David S. Reynolds
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Contents List of Plates Acknowledgments Note on the Text viii ix x Introduction 1 1. Memory in the Era of Dynamic Psychology: Nineteenth-Century Backgrounds 6 2. Rousseau and the Romantics: Autobiographical Memory and Emotion 24 3. Baudelaire, Rimbaud and Le Cerveau : Sensory Pathways to Memory 43 4. Proust and the Engram: The Trigger of the Senses 60 5. Woolf, Joyce and Faulkner: Associative Memory 77 6. Apollinaire, Breton and the Surrealists: Automatism and Aleatory Memory 100 7. Nin, Borges and Paz: Labyrinthine Passageways of Mind and Language 117 8. The Almond and the Seahorse: Neuroscientific Perspectives 135 Afterword. Images of the Artists: Dalí, Dominguez and Magritte 153 Notes 159 Bibliography 174 Index 180 vii
List of Plates (between pages 156 and 157) 1. Oscar Dominguez, Memory of the Future (1938). 2002 Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York/ADAGP, Paris 2. René Magritte, La Mémoire (1948) 2002 C. Herscovici, Brussels/Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York viii
Acknowledgments This book was contracted in London, gestated in Paris, and was written in New York. The project grew from my previous book, Aesthetic Autobiography, when I realized that memory events intrinsic to autobiographical writings could be approached with objective, extrinsic scrutiny. My utmost gratitude goes to my scholar-husband, David S. Reynolds, who was a constant source of encouragement and support to me as I took my lone journey down unexplored interdisciplinary pathways. I also wish to thank my devoted economist brother, Haig R. Nalbantian, whose scientific, critical eye examined the manuscript. I appreciate greatly the insights I gained from my discussions of modern science with my physicist friend William Wallace. I have also profited from collegial dialogues with Professors André Topia, Jean Bessière, and Pascal Michon. I am grateful to the indefatigable librarian Louis Pisha of Long Island University, who made available to me research materials from across the United States. My appreciation goes to Tim Farmiloe, the former Director of Macmillan Publishers, who sustained faith in my work over two decades of publishing books with his firm. His successor, Josie Dixon, and her colleagues Emily Rosser and Becky Mashayekh at Palgrave have ably seen the publication through to completion. My year-long sabbatical from Long Island University, at the turn of the century, enabled me to spend a productive research year in Paris, where I doggedly mined the collections of the Sorbonne, the Salpêtrière Hospital, the Bibliothèque interuniversitaire de Médecine, and the Bibliothèque Nationale, and was stimulated by lectures at the Collège de France and scholarly exchanges at the Pasteur Institute. This time, I had to forgo Paris s cafés for its libraries, which provided me with other kinds of sustenance. Bridgehampton, Long Island May 2002 ix
Note on the Text In quotations from French texts, passages that are in the original French followed by an English translation are my own translated versions except where otherwise indicated. Where only English appears, the translation are those of others. x