A Seaside Walk with Prof. Susan Suleiman

Prof. Susan Suleiman, the professor from American Harvard University, had gave her speech for her work in seminar style called Crises of Memory and Second World War in the College of Liberal Arts, NSYSU. Briefly speaking in this paper, Prof. Suleiman discussed the loss and trauma of 1.5 generation which she called, and how they experienced that in representing their historical memory unconsciously by inventing the techniques and form in writing a fiction. Prof. Suleiman put emphasis on "how" to tell the story rather than "why." She viewed the survivors as an individual which embodies the personal historical memory by selves. After the speech, my classmates and I had a great time with Prof. Susan Suleiman through peaceful small talk and wander at the beach from NSYSU. Prof. Suleiman looked alive when she stood at the beach and saw a large track of sea in front of her. Somehow her back reminded me of a leading actress in the film, Titanic, the old lady Lora. When she almost entered into a large track of the sea, the image of her back seemed to be embraced by the sea, leaving wonderfully a picture in a spontaneous way. And then, we talked about the political issue and our future plans in Taiwan while walking slowly in warm sunlight. The waves of sea moves back and forth slowly, the memory seemed to be ignited or not, in a way of lasting silence bearing abundant memory in one's mind that can hardly be told straightforward.