The Poetry of Belonging: Episodic Memory and the Shades

Abstract

Neural science and cognitive psychology have in recent years established the fundamental importance of episodic memory in the formation of an individual’s personal and social identity. These models of understanding help to explain the widespread prevalence of the shades in numerous cultural and literary traditions, including those in contemporary South Africa. This paper applies these findings to the appearance of the shades in the work of poets as diverse as Homer, Dante, Hardy and Vilakazi, and argues that a fuller recognition of the universality of the shades challenges the inward and spiritual apartheid of individuals in a globalised world fissured by recalcitrant identity politics.