Memory in Literature: From Rousseau to Neuroscience

196 Pages·2003·1.144 MB·English

by  Suzanne Nalbantian (auth.)

Memory in Literature
From Rousseau to Neuroscience
Suzanne Nalbantian
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 viii
Acknowledgments ix
Note on the Text 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 Auto-
biography, when I realized that memory events intrinsic to autobiographi-
cal 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
Itook my lone journey down unexplored interdisciplinary pathways.
Ialso 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