Dolores and Peter´s memories: in The Hiding place (2000) by Trezza Azzopardi and Mrs Dalloway (1925) by Virginia Woolf

Abstract

Dolores and Peter´s Memories in The Hiding Place (2000) by Trezza Azzopardi and Mrs Dalloway (1925) by Virginia Woolf inevitably leads to reflections on memory. When considering the term “memory” one relates it to the brain, the most mysterious organ human beings possess, with its neurons and synaptic connections involved in the process of remembering. We may have studied three stages of memory –encoding, storage and retrieval and know about short term and long term memory.1 We generally hear people referred to as having a “good” memory or a “bad” memory (with respect to the amount of precise information they can recall at a given moment) and we must have found ourselves at times saying we had something “on the tip of our tongue” but still not have been able to produce it immediately. Memory has always been intriguing. Throughout time different disciplines have tried to account for the structures, processes and functions of memory, and there have been many important contributions to its understanding. However, much is still to be learned and remains a mystery to this day.