One of the reasons I enjoyed reading the class blogs this week was getting to see so many perspectives and different artifacts through each person’s reflection on Kogawa’s Fond. Since I focused most of my time reading Kogawa’s drafts, I loved reading Mariana’s blog about a letter written to Kogawa about Obasan, as I did not encounter any such thing during my time with the fond. The letter Mariana shared in her blog was from a Japanese-Canadian reader who had lived through the war and internment in Canada. Mariana shows how moved and affected the reader was by the novel, and how it had affected her ability to emotionally understand her past. I think this letter is a good example of how Obasan, as a technology of memory, helped the reader understand her personal memory and gain a sense of belonging by realizing that her personal memory is part of a greater collective, cultural and national memory.

Thank you Mariana, and the rest of the class for giving such diverse insights into your experience of the fond, reading these blogs really added to my experience!

Jen