XÓA ĐI DẤU VẾT CỦA MAEKAWA HOMARE: SỰ TƯƠNG QUAN GIỮA VẬT CHẤT - KÝ ỨC - BẢN NGÃ

Abstract

This article clarifies the dialectical relationship between materiality, memory, and the human self in Maekawa Homare’s novel Erasing the Traces. Methodologically, the study adopts an interdisciplinary approach – integrating literary criticism, psychology, and anthropology – combined with close textual analysis to decode the complex interactions among these core components. The findings demonstrate that personal relics are not merely inanimate objects; rather, they serve as the repositories of psychic energy. When the living refuse to decipher these material objects, they not only sever the memory continuum of the deceased but also induce a profound disruption in their own inner psychological life. Conversely, through the acts of decoding and cherishing these relics, the characters undergo a process of self-healing and reconstruct their own existential identity. Consequently, this study offers a valuable theoretical and empirical reference for scholarship on foreign literature approached through the triad of materiality, memory, and the self.