In this essay I look to three memoirs that recount the experiences of three individuals as they confront the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina on the Gulf Coast. All three writers, Natasha Trethewey, Billy Sothern, and Ken Wells have complicated relationships with the Gulf Coast, but they use the memoir genre to work through these feelings. Specifically I highlight the strategy of negative memory that these writers use in their attempt to work through loss. Negative memory is the attempt to remember what a place was like after it has been completely changed by disaster. But negative memory has a productive function in that it also allows one to map memory back onto these changed places. The interplay of memory, memoir, and memorial in the work of these writers moves them toward a reconceptualization of the Gulf Coast as a place that is at once always vulnerable and resilient as the genealogical ties embedded in its culture and the grassroots justice movements that have made the region a hotbed for social justice. Negative memory has the ability for us to take personal experiences of loss and injustice and map them onto a broader national narrative—one that previously shut out certain voices. That dynamic process of mapping, which negative memory affords, has given voice to those who previously had the quietest voices with which to tell their stories.

中文翻译：

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卡特里娜飓风后的负面记忆：回忆录的持久性

在这篇文章中，我看三本回忆录，这些回忆录讲述了三个人在墨西哥湾沿岸遭遇卡特里娜飓风的后果时的经历。Natasha Trethewey、Billy Sothern 和 Ken Wells 这三位作家都与墨西哥湾沿岸有着复杂的关系，但他们使用回忆录类型来解决这些感受。具体来说，我强调了这些作家在尝试克服损失时使用的负面记忆策略。负面记忆是试图记住一个地方被灾难完全改变后的样子。但是负面记忆具有一种富有成效的功能，因为它还允许人们将记忆映射回这些变化的地方。记忆、回忆录的相互作用，这些作家的作品中的纪念和纪念使他们重新认识墨西哥湾沿岸，将其视为一个始终脆弱而富有弹性的地方，因为其文化和草根正义运动使该地区成为社会发展的温床。正义。负面记忆有能力让我们将失去和不公正的个人经历映射到更广泛的国家叙事中——以前将某些声音拒之门外。负面记忆提供的动态映射过程让那些以前最安静地讲述自己故事的人有了发言权。负面记忆有能力让我们将失去和不公正的个人经历映射到更广泛的国家叙事中——以前将某些声音拒之门外。负面记忆提供的动态映射过程让那些以前最安静地讲述自己故事的人有了发言权。负面记忆有能力让我们将失去和不公正的个人经历映射到更广泛的国家叙事中——以前将某些声音拒之门外。负面记忆提供的动态映射过程让那些以前最安静地讲述自己故事的人有了发言权。