Repression and Escapism in One Hundred Years of Solitude: Memory, Forgetting, and Historical Trauma

This article examines how traumatic experiences can be repressed and forgotten, using One Hundred Years of Solitude as a case study, to underscore the importance of preserving traumatic events through multiple forms of media, such as literature. Specifically, I employ Freudian psychoanalysis to explore the internal thoughts of the characters in One Hundred Years of Solitude and illustrate how the reluctance to confront one’s past can culminate in collective amnesia. Previous discussions of the novel have largely focused on postcolonial interpretations centered on power dynamics. This paper, however, argues that not only external suppression but also internal repression drives the characters to forget their memories. I find that the fear of confronting the past stems from negative feelings toward earlier stages of existence, such as a disdain for primitiveness. These emotions lead to an aversion to the past and eventually become ingrained as habitual collective amnesia. Investigating how collective amnesia develops helps us recognize the value of representing traumatic experiences through various media, including literature.