Writing Memory, under the Full Moon, in the Golden Volutes of Ginkgo Biloba Leaves, or the Swirling Snow of Cherry Blossoms: the Design of Literary and Artistic Travel Diaries for Survivors of Historical Traumata
Writing Memory, under the Full Moon, in the Golden Volutes of Ginkgo Biloba Leaves, or the Swirling Snow of Cherry Blossoms: the Design of Literary and Artistic Travel Diaries for Survivors of Historical Traumata

Summary/Abstract: What is a travel diary for the survivors of History? What kind of apology is there for them? Faced with extreme suffering, the powers of writing may seem obsolete, yet this is far from the case. The journey may be the result of an exile, lived as an exile from their world, from others, or even from themselves. In this context, the travel diary, writing and art can go together. The question arises as to how certain literary and artistic traditions, or conceptions of nature in Asia, for example, can help survivors who are inclined to write, even paint and add flowers in their travel diaries, to stop fleeing a part of the real, which totalitarianism hides or denigrates: the beauty of rebirth, the dream, the mystery, the meaning of the possible - and of course love. How can the travel diary become, for a survivor, a kind of space-time enclave, or an admirable microcosm-refuge, within a world that has become unbearable, without denying the real world? How can it be a storage medium for one’s memories, or the strata of salutary pages? The travel diary can constitute a skylight, through which a new anchoring in the real world can become possible again, favored by poetry and art, or even by reading such a travel diary to relatives, or if it were made public.

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