VOL 1 No 2, 2024 Research Article
Deepanjali Baruah
Assistant Professor, Dept of English, J.B. University, Jorhat, Assam
DOI: https://doi.org/10.21659/jsae/v1n2/v1n209
[Article History: Received: 21 Mar 2024. Revised: 23 Jul 2024. Accepted: 13 Aug 2024. Published: 25 Nov 2024]
Abstract
Memory is the mind’s reservoir which preserves the past and helps to remember. To put it very simply, memory signifies something that has occurred before it is remembered. Memory does not possess the future of conjecture and the sensation of the present. Aristotle has significantly commented that memory is of the past. On the other hand, Plato opined that humans have the capacity to preserve the experienced memories. For him, memory is inherently a dialectical form of art. However, present scholars like Paul Ricoeur and Anne Whitehead have given philosophical and scientific insights into the paradoxes of memory with more recent reflections on ethics, representation, and responsibility. Indian Classical literature can also be studied from varied critical perspectives including memory. Kalidasa’s immortal classic Abhijnanasakuntalam may be critiqued from the aspects of delusion and the loss of memory, remembrance, and recognition. In this classical drama, forgetting and remembering, the integral features of memory, play significant roles. Forgetting, according to Paul Ricoeur “is an attack on the reliability of memory.” But forgetting may also be considered as the traces of memory kept in reserve which helps in the process of remembering. Kalidasa’s introduction of the curse and King Duhsanta’s loss of memory is a way to explore the different states of human consciousness. Duhsanta’s forgetfulness is the challenge to memory’s claim of reliability. The question of forgiveness arises here when Sakuntala pardons her husband unconditionally to live peacefully. Sakuntala derives joy, love, and wisdom when she forgives her husband Duhsanta. This paper attempts to theorize memory taking into consideration the aporias of forgetting, remembering, and forgiveness, revealing how this symbiosis influences the ethical sensibility of the play.
Keywords: memory, forgetting, remembering, forgiveness.
