(Re)Imagining “Dystopian Space”: Memory and Trauma in Yoko Ogawa’s The Memory Police

Yōko Ogawa’s The Memory Police(1994) is setin an unknown island where objects andtheir meanings gradually disappear from society’scollective memory. Spencer argues that “power imposes itself on society through spatial initiatives that reconfigure the entirety of social space.” Asmemory is suppressed in this authoritarian society,the act of retaining memories of “disappeared”objects is aform of violationof that authoritarianism,as it is seen as the individual’s resistance against the collective goals of the state. This article examinesthe ways in which memory and trauma play crucial roles in the lives of individuals in reclaiming their sense of space and individuality. To escape tyranny and oppressive real space, the narrator creates an imaginary space that preserves anyremaining memory.As memory is associative,it functions to retrieve information related toparticular objects or concepts and to connect thisinformation with its relevant context to yield meanings. The move to preserve memory acts as a form of agency exhibited by the narratorand the novel foregrounds the various ways memorycan also lead to liberation.