Memory and the Written Word
Abstract
Stelzer presents a recent paper that compares ideas from Plato’s dialogue in Phaedrus and Gabriel García Márquez’s novel One Hundred Years of Solitude. In my paper I discuss the idea put forth by Plato’s Socrates that writing things down often doesn’t fully convey ideas for others and merely serves as a reminder to the people who already understand the ideas. Socrates’s idea aligns with the experiences of the characters in One Hundred Years of Solitude, which specifically happens when the town of Macondo is thrown into a frenzy of writing things down during the memory loss epidemic. I analyze the section in One Hundred Years of Solitude in which José Arcadio Buendía and his son desperately try to write things down to save the town of Macondo. They describe what a cow is and how to milk it and they make a sign to remind the town of God’s existence. I then compare this to Plato’s ideas that are expressed in Phaedrus. This four-page paper was written for my Literary Theory Criticism class that I am taking with Dr. Michlitsch.
College
College of Liberal Arts
Department
English
Campus
Winona
First Advisor/Mentor
Gretchen Michlitsch
Location
Oak Rooms E/F - Kryzsko Commons
Start Date
4-18-2024 10:20 AM
End Date
4-18-2024 10:40 AM
Presentation Type
Oral Presentation
Format of Presentation or Performance
In-Person
Memory and the Written Word
Oak Rooms E/F - Kryzsko Commons
Stelzer presents a recent paper that compares ideas from Plato’s dialogue in Phaedrus and Gabriel García Márquez’s novel One Hundred Years of Solitude. In my paper I discuss the idea put forth by Plato’s Socrates that writing things down often doesn’t fully convey ideas for others and merely serves as a reminder to the people who already understand the ideas. Socrates’s idea aligns with the experiences of the characters in One Hundred Years of Solitude, which specifically happens when the town of Macondo is thrown into a frenzy of writing things down during the memory loss epidemic. I analyze the section in One Hundred Years of Solitude in which José Arcadio Buendía and his son desperately try to write things down to save the town of Macondo. They describe what a cow is and how to milk it and they make a sign to remind the town of God’s existence. I then compare this to Plato’s ideas that are expressed in Phaedrus. This four-page paper was written for my Literary Theory Criticism class that I am taking with Dr. Michlitsch.
