Memories lay Within: Embiodiment in Memory

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     During this week's archives search, my favorite find was a book packed full with interviews of Kenyon students living in Old Kenyon at the time of the fire. It was a very traumatic time for these students, along with a very memorable one. What stuck out to me was the amount of physical feeling descriptors that were used to tell the story of what happened. It was apparent that these students were brought back to the scary moments when they were talking about it. One student described how it felt when he opened the door of his dorm room to the awaiting flames. He said it felt so hot that he expected major burns. He had no time to check before jumping out of his window to escape. Another student described the feeling of hitting the ground from a jump multiple stories up. The pain hurt him to talk about, and brought him back to the traumatic experience. This collective memory of the Old Kenyon fire all starts within the body.

    In Lynn Spillman and Brian Conways essay titled ‘Texts, Bodies, and the Memory of Bloody Sunday,’ It is explained why memory and collective memory is rooted within the body. An interview with a Korean man about his body and memory included “My body has absorbed the past like a sponge.”(Spillman, Conway 2007:81). Not being able to forget even if the mind wants to let go. The man describes what he feels when he smells Korean food. He says his stomach and heart both ache because it reminds him of hardship. All humans have bodily reactions tied with memories. I am sure when these students think and talk about this fire, they feel something within that is connected to that memory. Whether it is the pain associated with the fall, or the heat from the raging flames, the body is a hub for memory through physical feeling. 

It is extremely apparent in me that memories root from physical sensations. The example that first comes to mind for me is music. So many songs are associated with memory for me, and give me a physical sensation. A few negative, but mostly positive. I still vividly remember the first time my middle school crush told me she liked me every time I heard the song Marvelous Day. I remember laying on the floor at a friend's house unable to sleep texting her. This song still makes me feel butterflies in my stomach and excitement every time it is played. It is so crazy to me that I am writing this but it is true! Also, these memories with the fire do connect me in a sense to my flare ups from Crohns. Every time I think about them or get reminded of one I feel a sensation in my gut. These physical reactions to memories are so strong in me that I can say I am in total agreement with the points in this essay. Lastly, it reminds me of something I just learned in my Animal Cognition psych class. We learned about conditioned food aversion. If the first time you eat something you get sick the same day, you will be afraid to eat that thing. Even if it wasn't what caused you to feel sick. The body feeling sickness creates a memory with that type of food. For me it's calamari. 


Spillman, Lyn, and Brian Conway. “Texts, Bodies, and the Memory of Bloody Sunday.” Symbolic Interaction, vol. 30, no. 1, 1 Nov. 2007, pp. 79–103. 


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