Warren, Monastery, Giant’s Cairn and Nordic Myths—Cultural Memory Writing in The Buried Giant

Abstract

Japanese British author Kazuo Ishiguro’s The Buried Giant tells the story of an elderly British couple’s journey of finding their son and reminiscing. He writes the unfinished story between the Britons and Saxons in the post-Arthur era in a fantastical way, focusing on the grand propositions of history, memory and human survival. This article innovatively applies the Assmann couple’s cultural memory theory to analyze the memory writing in The Buried Giant from the dimensions of media, power, and function of cultural memory. The warren, monastery and giant’s cairn in the text are not only the carriers of individual, national and state memories, but also the necessary conditions for the buried stored memories to be awakened under the fog of amnesia. And the Nordic myths, as the cohesive structure in their cultural memory, play a crucial role in reconstructing their own cultural identity. As a result of which, this paper first analyzes the positive role that cultural memory plays in reconstructing identity and healing trauma for individuals, collectives, and nations under the shadow of the Holocaust. Secondly, it explores the writer’s intention to contemplate the survival status of all humanity, comprehend the meaning of life, and call for peace in the context of globalization. Thirdly, it reveals the theme of “facing historical trauma, rejecting negative forgetting, inheriting cultural memory, achieving identity reconstruction, and pursuing harmonious coexistence”.