From Selective Recall to Collective Memory: On Moll Flanders’ Insinuation about 18th-century England
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.54097/mx1dw679Keywords:
Moll Flanders, Memory Theory, Social Cultural ContextAbstract
As a male author, Defoe breaks the traditional literary paradigm and depicts the memoirs of working women who took the initiative to commit crimes due to the fear of poverty. With the help of memory theory, this paper employs memory theory in conjunction with literary works to examine specific situations that the main character, Moll Flanders, either selectively recalls or ignores. The social context of eighteenth-century England, which is the image of collective memory, is recreated from the perspective that individual memories are constructed in interactive experiences and are always associated with the social context of the time. This includes the social disparity between the rich and the poor, moral and ethical dilemmas, and social class disparities; additionally, the reasons behind the protagonist's decisions and behaviors in a particular situation are explored.
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