Communicating Fragmented Memories: Explorations of Trauma as Autoethnographic Bridges

Abstract

Through an experience of reading, researching and interacting with people with different cultural backgrounds in academia, I explore autoethnographically how my personal experience can offer a way to contemplate connections and disassociations of cultural memory in relation to the May 1998 Riots of Indonesia. I attempt to show how disruptive events can bring the traumatic memories back into current consciousness both within individual lives and in the challenges that Jakarta as a city has in coming to terms with the dead and raped bodies that were the result of the country’s denial of its practices of violence. Disturbing memories emerge as cities deal with perturbing events that destroy their image as multicultural cities. Moving across the boundaries of generations, timeframes, and space that connect fragmented memories embodied in selected literary works, I aim to explore different ways in which denial can bring back fragmented memories and a need to ‘come to terms’ with such traumatic histories. I also explore how the May 1998 Riots memory has been dynamically shaped through the adoption of traumascapes in literature, and how questions of re/membering mass rape and violence have affected the creative writing practice.

Keywords:

• memory
• fragmentation
• May 1998 Riots
• autoethnography
• trauma

Acknowledgements

This essay stems from my creative doctoral project, which is about the intergenerational relationship of three Chinese Indonesian women. I am grateful for the immense support of my supervisors, Dr Marcella Polain and Dr Ffion Murphy, whose suggestions and ideas motivated me to write this essay. I thank the two anonymous reviewers for their insightful comments and guidance on this article. I would also like to acknowledge that the article was written by the support of an ECU (Edith Cowan University) Higher Degree by Research Scholarship.

Disclosure Statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.

Notes

1 Hui’s Mellow Yellow Drama was published in Indonesian language and has not been translated into English up until March 2020. I took the liberty to translate the passage myself in order to display and explain its significance to the readers.