The Question of Contextualized ‘Frozen Memory’ in the Self-Narratives of the Aged: A Gerontological Reading of Jamil Gammoh’s If Only Time Could Tell
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.17507/jltr.1604.35Keywords:
frozen memory, Jamil Gammoh, literary gerontology, narrative gerontology, self-narrativesAbstract
In the Arab ethos, the older generations occupy a significant place as subjects of reverence and respect and as repositories of acquired wisdom. Arabic fiction too is replete with characters in this age category, who project personalized and holistic truths of either a war-torn homeland or a time and context that no longer exist as they feel foreign to their present surroundings whether it is in diaspora or the postmodern present. For the younger generation specifically, the only source of truth are such stories with their details told by a withering generation. However, from a prevalent theoretical perspective, reliability on frozen memories as sources of truth is questioned if these memories are projected as romanticized and exaggerated as they take on a repetitive pattern. This study employs a gerontological approach in Jamil Gammoh’s collection of short fiction If Only Time Could Tell in order to highlight the significant role that the older generation plays in recreating their memories of a better, simpler time lived, as experienced socially and culturally in the past against their sense of loss, alienation and confusion toward the drastic change in social attitudes accompanying the technological advancement of the present. The study will also look at the possibility of understanding ‘Frozen Memory’ away from its diasporic context to include the older generation’s sense of presencing in the foreign postmodern age, by highlighting the notable similarities in the urgency of narration given the substantially different circumstances driving them to do so.
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