The Law of Historical Memory

Abstract

Experimenting with various shifts of narrative address, The Law of Historical Memory is a memoir in four parts that examines the fragmentation of my selfhood and my family relationships. I reflect upon the past through the lens of my post-cancer period of Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder as, during that period, the new, healthier relationship I had developed with my body incurred a greater sense of its communicative abilities. I discovered that my body held memories I could not see but feared greatly—so much so that I feared dying more after cancer. When I discovered that my adolescent journals revealed repressed experiences, every false conception I had of myself and of my family was shattered. Ultimately, by uncovering the truth, I healed as an integrated self. This thesis represents excerpts from Part 3: The Kitchen Sink and Part 4: The Pact of Forgetting.