The In-Between of Jazz and the Blues : Beyond Marginality in Esi Edugyan’s Half-Blood Blues
In this paper I show how in the Ghanaian-born Canadian writer Esi Edugyan’s Half-Blood Blues, the marginality of a“hitherto little-regarded corner of the black Diaspora”—the history of the so-called Rhineland Mischlingers—is put in the center of a story that concerns itself with specific memories of...
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| Publicado en: | URI:https://journals.openedition.org/babel, |
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| Autor Principal: | |
| Formato: | Article ou chapitre numérique |
| Idioma: | Anglais |
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Babel
2020
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| Acceso en liña: | Accès Université d'Orléans et IFPM Accès Université d'Orléans et IFPM |
| Résumé: | In this paper I show how in the Ghanaian-born Canadian writer Esi Edugyan’s Half-Blood Blues, the marginality of a“hitherto little-regarded corner of the black Diaspora”—the history of the so-called Rhineland Mischlingers—is put in the center of a story that concerns itself with specific memories of the Second World War of a Black American jazz musician. In order to do so, I focus on the different forms of liminality—or in-betweenness—that these memories present : temporal, spacial, ethnic and musical, as well as generic and finally linguistic. I show that these liminalities—at the very margin of marginality, or beyond—will reveal the horrors of war but will also create a Deleuzian ligne de fuite that allows the protagonist to come to terms with this painful period in his life as a musician and as a man. |
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