The Memory Police: Rehashing the Image of Totalitarianism or Intentionally Anachronistic Writing?

Literary images, followed by their visual interpretation in diverse film adaptations have effective impact of reinforcing the “knowledge” about certain political ideologies. The cultural representation of fascism and totalitarianism seems to be reductively limited to its repetitive features of definite suppression of freedom and brutal control. Yoko Ogawa’s dystopian novel The Memory Police (1994) depicts the state of affairs of a novelist on an unnamed island where inhabitants are subjugated to oppressive regime of the Memory Police enabling the total amnesia of all the objects disappearing from everyday life. My intention is to explore whether Ogawa’s literary images challenge or underpin the previously established imagery of existing power structures. Further, I will discuss the notion of anachronism both as motif and (intended) literary approach. This novel is also analyzed through its allegory about the future perspective of the written word in the indifferent and oblivious world.