History and Memory in The Sense of An Ending by Julian Barnes

Year 2023, Volume: 1 Issue: 1, 69 - 76, 20.12.2023

Münevver Bartamay

Abstract

This study aims to examine The Sense of an Ending in terms of history and memory. Anthony Webster’s and his friends’ past and and the life of Anthony, or Tony as his friends call him, and the lives of all other characters are told from Tony's perspective, so the reader has to depend on his memory to reach a conclusion. But his ideas and memories show no stability, and every clue about the past changes or refutes his previous view, and sometimes everything becomes blurry. In La Grange's words, the absence of documents leaves a gap in memory and causes some facts that are not at all certain to appear as if they were real. Tony recalls his memories and tells the events exactly as if they were real, but with each new document that emerges - Tony's letter, Adrian’s diary - everything changes and requires a new perspective. The story may need to be rewritten from Adrian's or Veronica Ford's point of view, but ultimately it is true that each character's narratives will fill the gaps differently, because memory is subjective; hence it is unreliable.

Keywords

history, unreliable memory, sensing the end, memories

References

• Barnes, J. (2011). The Sense of an Ending, New York: Knopf.
• Kermode, F. (2000). “The Sense of an Ending.” Oxford: Oxford University Press.
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• Michael G., (2014) “The Oddness of Julian Barnes and The Sense of An Ending.” English: Journal of the English Association, Volume 63, Issue 242, 1 September 2014, 225–240, https://doi.org/10.1093/english/efu016
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