“The Sea Is Slavery.” “The Sea Is History.” “Maybe the Sea Is Endless.” The Sea as a Confluence of Horror and Memory in Fred D’Aguiar’s Feeding the Ghosts
Fred D’Aguiar’s Feeding the Ghosts (1997) relies on a historical event, the Zong Massacre, which has remained one of the most disastrous records of the Transatlantic slave trade. This essay intends to look into the way in which this fictional account opens up a confluence of horror and memory in the...
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| Gepubliceerd in: | URI:https://journals.openedition.org/ces, |
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| Hoofdauteur: | |
| Formaat: | Article ou chapitre numérique |
| Taal: | Anglais |
| Gepubliceerd in: |
Commonwealth Essays and Studies
2021
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| Online toegang: | Accès Université d'Orléans et IFPM Accès Université d'Orléans et IFPM |
| Samenvatting: | Fred D’Aguiar’s Feeding the Ghosts (1997) relies on a historical event, the Zong Massacre, which has remained one of the most disastrous records of the Transatlantic slave trade. This essay intends to look into the way in which this fictional account opens up a confluence of horror and memory in the intertwined fields of history and fiction. The image of the slave ship as a circumscribed space of inhumane confinement will be examined first. The essay will subsequently focus on the sea as the representation of suspended space and time, a “non space” that could be coextensive with an unending Middle Passage. Finally, the novel will be analysed as a sea of (his)story/stories, a “road of bones” which leads to a re-routing of history. By writing about the silenced slaves who drowned in the sea, D’Aguiar makes sure that their stories are remembered and that their past is re-membered. |
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