Postcolonial Narrative and the Work of Mourning

Sam Durrant

Description

Sam Durrant's powerfully original book compares the ways in which the novels of J. M. Coetzee, Wilson Harris, and Toni Morrison memorialize the traumatic histories of racial oppression that continue to haunt our postcolonial era. The works examined bear witness to the colonization of the New World, U.S. slavery, and South African apartheid, histories founded on a violent denial of the humanity of the other that had traumatic consequences for both perpetrators and victims. Working at the borders of psychoanalysis and deconstruction, and drawing inspiration from recent work on the Holocaust, Durrant rethinks Freud's opposition between mourning and melancholia at the level of the collective and rearticulates the postcolonial project as an inconsolable labor of remembrance.

Acknowledgments

Introduction: Specters of Colonialism

1. Speechless before Apartheid: J. M. Coetzee's Inconsolable Works of Mourning

2. Rites of Communion: Wilson Harris's Hosting of History

3. Keeping It in the Family: Passing on Racial Memory in the Novels of Toni Morrison

Conclusion: Some Kind of Community

Notes

Works Cited

Index

Sujets

• Literary theory

Informations

• Publié par: State University of New York Press
• Date de parution: 01 février 2012
• Nombre de lectures: 0
• EAN13: 9780791485750
• Langue: English

Extrait

Postcolonial Narrative and the Work of Mourning

SUNY series

EXPLORATIONS in POSTCOLONIAL STUDIES

Emmanuel C. Eze and Arif Dirlik, editors

Postcolonial Narrative and the Work of Mourning

J. M. Coetzee, Wilson Harris, and Toni Morrison

SAM DURRANT

State University of New York Press

Published by S TATE U NIVERSITY OF N EW Y ORK P RESS , A LBANY

© 2004 State University of New York

All rights reserved

Printed in the United States of America

No part of this book may be used or reproduced in any manner whatsoever without written permission. No part of this book may be stored in a retrieval system or transmitted in any form or by any means including electronic, electrostatic, magnetic tape, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise without the prior permission in writing of the publisher.

For information, address State University of New York Press, 90 State Street, Suite 700, Albany, NY 12207

Production, Laurie Searl Marketing, Michael Campochiaro

Library of Congress CataloginginPublication Data

Durrant, Sam, 1970– Postcolonial narrative and the work of mourning : J. M. Coetzee, Wilson Harris, and Toni Morrison / Sam Durrant. p. cm. — (SUNY series, explorations in postcolonial studies) Includes bibliographical references and index. ISBN 0-7914-5945-4 (alk. paper) — ISBN 0-7914-5946-2 (pbk. : alk. paper) 1. Coetzee, J. M., 1940—Criticism and interpretation. 2. Morrison, Toni—Criticism and interpretation. 3. Harris, Wilson—Criticism and interpretation. 4. African Americans in literature. 5. South Africa—In literature. 6. Postcolonialism in literature. 7. Apartheid in literature. 8. Guyana—In literature. 9. Slavery in literature. 10. Blacks in literature. 11. Grief in literature. 12. Narration (Rhetoric) I. Title. II. Series.

PR9369.3.C58Z65 2003 813'.5409358—dc21

10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1

2003045657

Acknowledgments

Introduction

Chapter One

Chapter Two

Chapter Three

Conclusion

Notes

Works Cited

Index

C o n t e n t s

Specters of Colonialism

Speechless before Apartheid: J. M. Coetzee’s Inconsolable Works of Mourning

Rites of Communion: Wilson Harris’s Hosting of History

Keeping It in the Family: Passing on Racial Memory in the Novels of Toni Morrison

Some Kind of Community

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We know that the Jews were prohibited from investigating the future. The Torah and the prayers instructed them in remembrance however. —Walter Benjamin, “Theses on the Philosophy of History”

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A c k n o w l e d g m e n t s

This book began life as a Ph.D. Thesis at Queen’s University, Ontario, and is particularly indebted to my supervisor, Asha Varadharajan, who taught a mind that is inclined to associate all too freely how to discriminate. Sylvia Söder- lind, Jed Rasula, Neil Lazarus, Helen Tiffin, Rosemary Jolly, Carrie Dawson, and Derek Attridge all read drafts and provided generous commentary. Many thanks to the anonymous readers of the manuscript for their sympathetic and illuminating suggestions, to my colleagues, Stuart Murray and Shirley Chew at Leeds University, for vital guidance while revising the introduction, and to Jane Bunker, Laurie Searl, and the publishing team at SUNY Press. I am also profoundly grateful to Charles Shepherdson for his inspirational teaching; the graduate communities at University of Missouri-Columbia and Queen’s Uni- versity, especially Ella Ophir, Tom Kohut, and David Cuthbert; Susan Spearey and Annick Hillger, with whom I collaborated on conference panels; the Canadian Association for Commonwealth Literature and Language Studies, at whose conferences I presented early versions of some of the material; and the Ontario Graduate Scholarship Program for financial support. Most of all I would like to thank my mother and siblings for their constant love and sup- port, and Alessandra Magri, to whom I am indebted for her meticulous edit- ing of the final manuscript and for much, much more than I can say. Material from chapter 1 was published as “Bearing Witness to Apartheid: J. M. Coetzee’s Inconsolable Works of Mourning” inContemporary Literature40, 3 (1999): 430–63. Material from chapter 2 was published as “Hosting History: Wilson Harris’s Sacramental Narratives” inJouvert: A Jour- nal of Postcolonial Studies5, 1 (Autumn 2000)http://social.chass.ncsu.edu/ jou- vert/v5i1/samdur.htm.

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