From Dustings of Snow to Wax Tablets. Forms of Remembrance in Selected Poems by Krisztina Tóth

Abstract

The present study aims at discussing memory and remembrance through their relationship with literature, more precisely, poetry. The analysis reaches back to Plato’s dialogue about the primacy of orality over literacy. Relying on the myth of Mnemosyne and Lethe, it then flows over to look at poetry as a special type of remembrance. Poems seem to remain ambiguous in nature, concealing and revealing truth at the same time. However, through this constant hide-and-seek with the audience, as far as their interpretations are concerned, they unravel the art of creation itself. They bring the reader back to the origins, to the source of memories. The practical part of the study consists of presenting and analysing contemporary Hungarian poems by Krisztina Tóth. The poems were selected arbitrarily, but they refer to or hint at Mnemosyne and/or memory.

Keywords

• memory
• remembrance
• myth
• origin