''The Penelope Work of Forgetting": Dreams, Memory, and the Recovery of Wholeness in Joy Kogawa's Obasan

The fragmented world that Naomi finds herself in at the beginning of Obasan can be explained not only in terms of the specific social and political situation depicted in the novel but also in more general terms as the result of her "entry into the symbolic order of language," her assumption of a phenomenal time-bound social identity. From this point of view, it is her longing for psychological unity that is the driving force in her narrative rather than the craving for social justice that Aunt Emily tries to instill in her. Naomi wants to "tunnel backwards" like Uncle Isamu till she reaches those undifferentiated, preconscious levels of experience at which she is still one with her mother and the rest of creation. In this journey, it is her dreams and "involuntary recollection" that play the leading role. At the level at which these occur, the distinctions of time, place, and logical identity on which phenomenal existence is based have not yet arisen. In surrendering to the memories that come flooding back into her mind as the novel progresses, therefore, Naomi is escaping from the isolation and alienation she has been condemned to since childhood. In repudiating her attachment to the phenomenal time-bound identity enforced by the "phallic authority" of the Grand Inquisitor, she regains the capacity to commune with her lost loved ones, to feel her mother's presence though she is not there.