Memory Anchored by Place Attachment and Cognitive Maps in Michael Ondaatje’s Warlight and The Cat’s Table

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Justy Joseph1 & Dr. Nirmala Menon2

1PhD Research Scholar, School of Humanities and Social Sciences, Indian Institute of Technology Indore, India. ORCID id: 0000-0002-7182-0108. Email id: phd1901261006@iiti.ac.in

2Associate Professor, School of Humanities and Social Sciences, Indian Institute of Technology Indore. Email id: nmenon@iiti.ac.in

 Volume 12, Number 6, 2020 I Full Text PDF

DOI: 10.21659/rupkatha.v12n6.18

Abstract

Recollection is a gangplank between an obsolete past, indisputable present and an unidentified future, but human memory is convoluted as the compendium of a landscape.  Perceptions, values and experiences fastened to a landscape can anchor memories, shift perceptions and can alter the aboriginal integrity and cognitive capabilities of an individual. This research article studies the Canadian Nobel Prize winning author Michael Ondaatje’s novels The Cat’s Table (2012) and Warlight (2018) venturing to understand how characters and their identities are created with the aid of memory. This study examines how place attachment and understanding of environmental configurations through generation of cognitive maps distorts or ascends recollection.

Keywords: place attachment, cognitive geography, cognitive maps, memory, landscape