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Rememory

Black American
Pronunciation

Understanding ARPABET Pronunciation

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The pronunciation guide uses the ARPABET phonetic system—the same system used in speech recognition and text-to-speech applications.

Vowel Examples:
AE1 = cat, bat
EH1 = bed, head
IY1 = see, me
OW1 = go, boat
UW1 = boot, do
Stress Numbers:
0 = no stress (unstressed)
1 = primary stress (loud)
2 = secondary stress (medium)
Example:
AH0 TH IY1 N AH0
= a-THEE-na (Athena)

The stressed syllable (marked with 1) is pronounced louder and clearer than others.

Quick Definition

A term for memory that returns as living presence, especially after trauma.

Detailed Definition
Associated with Toni Morrison, rememory suggests that the past is not gone but inhabits places, bodies, and stories. In poetry, it appears through ghosts, repeated images, ancestral voices, and historical wounds. It helps poets show how slavery and racial trauma continue to shape the present.
Example
Example in poetry:
A poem shows the past returning through places, ghosts, and repeated images; Rememory makes history feel alive rather than finished; A speaker encounters slavery’s traces in the present landscape; The poem suggests that trauma remains stored in bodies and places
Additional Notes
Rememory, a term strongly associated with Toni Morrison, refers to memory that persists as active presence rather than distant recollection. In African American poetry, rememory helps explain how traumatic histories such as slavery or racial violence seem to inhabit places, bodies, and language. Students should distinguish rememory from ordinary nostalgia; it often involves haunting recurrence, involuntary return, and the sense that the past remains unfinished within the present.
Also Known As
Living memory
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