Brought Through Senses: Exploring Senses as a Gateway to Memories in Gyasi’s Homegoing

Abstract

Abstract Autobiographical memory is a complex blend of memories of single, recurring, and extended events integrated into a coherent story of self, that is created and evaluated through sociocultural practices. These memories once integrated are recalled/retrieved through distinctive cues (different cues inducing different memories), both voluntarily and involuntarily. Yaa Gyasi is a young American novelist of African descent and her novel Homegoing (2016) is a story of history, colonialism, separation, migration, slavery, inter and intra-personal relations, and conflicts. Memory therefore is a dominant occurrence in Gyasi’s works. This paper analyses the use and allusion of five primary senses and their role as distinctive cues inducing distinct memories for the characters throughout the course of the novel. The study highlights how this usage helps Gyasi shape her characters and their characteristics connecting many small tales into one large narration. The paper also enquires how recalling and practicing other cues, mainly socio-cultural and religious, helps in forming and strengthening relations between similar groups of people in faraway lands through their shared collective memory.