Reminiscence And Existence

"Reminiscence" has been elaborated back and forth by generations of great thinkers in the history of Western philosophy and aesthetics, e.g. Plato, Hegel, Schopenhauer, Heidegger etc. They thought that reminiscence is a ladder leading towards the ultimate realm, is the treasury of spiritual fruits and basis of spiritual development, is a prerequisite of reaching an aesthetic state, is an in-depth experience towards existence, and the source of poetry.... The subject of this reminiscence, may be the Idea, God, the Spirit, or meaning of existence, harmony in childhood, traditions, a liberal Utopia, historical truths.... Henceforth, in the Western cultural tradition, there is a peculiar and deep relationship between memory and existence, which can develop into multiple correlations, shallow or deep. This thesis selects a very typical modern writer—Marcel Proust as an example to investigate the relationship between reminiscence and existence.Reminiscence, first of all, has an impact on people's daily existence: memory is the basis of individual self-consciousness; the sense of self-identity in recollection of memories is the foundation of successful human existence. To indulge excessively in reminiscence or to escape from memory, will both affect the quality of life. The whole memory of a person's life is like overlapping layers of rock strata. There is separation and there is penetration. Both insularity and connectivity exist together. Furthermore, reminiscence possesses an aesthetic quality: 1) Reminiscence is naturally suitable to cultivate a suitable aesthetic distance: A person who recollects his memories always observes things and events from a substantial distance On one hand, he has forsaken his utilitarian altitude. On the other hand, he has kept an emotional connection with things and events. The qualities of being non-utilitarian and emotional are the basis requirements of aesthetics. 2) Reminiscence is not a faithful reappearance of primitive memory. It integrates messy experiences of life, christens them with names, endows them with their logics and order, and helps the gradual formation of their aesthetic forms. Through all these processes, life experiences have been transformed into aesthetic experiences.Proust has differentiated the "psychological time" in aesthetic reminiscences from the "physical time" in general: Physical time is always unilateral and moves with a uniform speed. Life in it will always degenerate and die. This has created the sense of tragedy in life in humanity. Yet in the psychological world, people can rely on reminiscence to forsake the inevitability of unilateral time, to mingle and fuse together past and present, in order to achieve the realm of liberty in aesthetics, to materialise the subjective reality of mind.Proust had segregated memory into "voluntary memory" and "involuntary memory". Voluntary memory is the memory controlled by reason and needed for practical uses. This type of memory has eliminated the emotional details, away from the real needs of mind and emotions. It is not aesthetic memory. Involuntary memory is a memory about emotional impression and atmosphere of the mind. It is figurative and emotional, and hence it is aesthetic. Involuntary memory is close to non-consciousnesses. It maintains the individual emotional experience, which enjoys reminiscence and is not influenced by reason or ideology and is originated from natural instincts. Proust considered that involuntary memory cannot be obtained through self-initiated efforts. Its occurrence is stochastic, and requires the recall provoked by external circumstances.