A Study On Memory Writing In Moon Tiger

Penelope Lively is a highly acclaimed female British writer who enjoys big fame and influence in literary circles.She was awarded the Booker Prize for the novel of Moon Tiger in 1987.In her children and adult literary works,Penelope Lively has showcased her ongoing concern for history and memory as well as the past and the present.Since she has a peculiar feeling for memory,memory elements run through the whole book from the beginning to the end both in terms of its contents and its writing techniques.Taking Moon Tiger as the research target,this thesis employs the relevant theories of memory,and follows the methods of text interpretation to investigate Penelope Lively's memory writing in Moon Tiger.The thesis is divided into three parts: introduction,Chapter Two to Chapter Four and conclusion.The introduction sketches out the life and literary creations of Penelope Lively,as well as the studies pertaining to Moon Tiger and memory theories.Under the pen of Penelope Lively,the memories of each character in Moon Tiger about history are personal,emotional and daily,such individual memory provides us with a microscopic perspective to explore the history as well as demonstrates us unrecorded particulars in the grand historical context.Chapter Two explores the individuals' traumatic memory of World War I,World War II,and Hungarian Revolution in Moon Tiger.Arduous life of a widow and a fatherless child as well as the horror of wars and agony of losing beloved ones and being separated from family during these historical periods are vividly described in Moon Tiger.Chapter Three delves into the techniques of Penelope Lively's memory writing in Moon Tiger,which comprise fragments,multiple points of view and juxtaposition of past and present.Chapter Four makes an analysis of the values of memory writing in Moon Tiger.Memory can be abused and manipulated by power,inserting different individuals voices under grand history acts as an effective way to break the homogenization of collective memory and resist against forgetting.At last,reminiscing and writing about traumatic memory also offers a way for the protagonist to negotiate with the painful past and get released.