My main concern is to explore the role memory plays in the constitution of subjectivity in the two novels, and I also aim to show how the processes of remembering contribute to the psychological development of the main characters. What link 1984 and Coming Up for Air are the malfunctions of memory which the two protagonists have to cope with. Orwell presents us the two extreme poles of the embodiment of trauma. In 1984 Winston Smith suffers from amnesia both on personal and historical levels as opposed to George Bowling, who is overrun with nostalgia in Coming Up for Air. The thesis is primarily a close reading of the two novels, with special focus on how defects in both temporality and memory affect the constitution of identity and on the way they contribute to the psychological development of the main characters.