Rewriting Cultural Memory Through Literature: A Reading of the Vollendungsroman Love in the Time of Cholera

Memory cannot be understood merely as a personal experience of the individual; it must also be examined as a collective experience shared by groups in society. Cultural memories of old age are socially constructed and transmitted through media such as literature, which preserves and challenges such narratives. Narrativizing memories of elderly people through works of the Vollendungsroman allows older characters to construct their own visions of growing old. Over the past three decades, resilience narratives in English literature have increasingly foregrounded stories of older adults who withstand challenges of ageing and transform them into renewed strength in what can be described as a form of 'remembering forward'. This article argues that literature not only reflects but actively reshapes cultural memory. Drawing on the works of Jan Assmann and Astrid Erll, it examines Gabriel García Márquez's Love in the Time of Cholera as a counter-memory that challenges stereotypes of ageing.