Memory and Form: The Textual Status and Function of Literary Recollection

Memory is used in literature to relate the present to the past, thus uniting two distinct moments (points or sections) either of history, or of the author's life, or of an evolving plot line. What are the modes of relationship between these two moments? To answer this question, we must distinguish between the several elements it involves and analyze each independently, for the literary modes of memory are many and complex-intra-textual, extratextual, and intertextual. In the present essay, memory is considered primarily from the point of view of its nature, status, and function as an aspect of literary form. (PB)