Remembering and Unremembering: A Posthuman Reading of Memory in ''The Buried Giant "

This paper explores the dynamics of remembering and forgetting in “The Buried Giant” through a posthuman perspective. Set in a mythical post-Arthurian Britain, the novel presents a society affected by a mysterious mist that erases collective memory. While traditional humanist approaches treat memory as an individual cognitive function central to identity, this study argues that Ishiguro portrays memory as a distributed phenomenon shaped by both human and nonhuman forces. The dragon Querig’s breath, which sustains the mist, functions as a powerful nonhuman agent regulating historical consciousness and social harmony. Through the journey of Axl and Beatrice, the narrative reveals how personal relationships and emotional identities are deeply connected to suppressed histories of violence between Saxons and Britons. By situating memory within a network of environmental, mythic, and nonhuman influences, the novel challenges anthropocentric assumptions about agency and knowledge. This paper argues that *The Buried Giant* reimagines memory as a shared and unstable process, raising ethical questions about whether peace sustained through collective forgetting can truly address historical trauma and responsibility.