Dismantling the Prison-House of Colonial History in a Selection of Michelle Cliff's Texts
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| Title: | Dismantling the Prison-House of Colonial History in a Selection of Michelle Cliff's Texts |
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| Language: | English |
| Authors: | Labidi, Abid Larbi |
| Source: | Advances in Language and Literary Studies. Oct 2016 7(5):64-69. |
| Availability: | Australian International Academic Centre PTY, LTD. 11 Souter Crescent, Footscray VIC, Australia 3011. Tel: +61-3-9028-6880; e-mail: editor.alls@aiac.org.au; Web site: http://journals.aiac.org.au/index.php/alls/index |
| Peer Reviewed: | Y |
| Page Count: | 6 |
| Publication Date: | 2016 |
| Document Type: | Journal Articles Reports - Evaluative |
| Descriptors: | Foreign Policy, Authors, Foreign Countries, Females, Disadvantaged, Slavery, Oral Tradition, Story Telling, Victims, Blacks, Fiction, Memory, History |
| Geographic Terms: | Jamaica |
| ISSN: | 2203-4714 |
| Abstract: | Most, if not all, writings by Jamaican writer Michelle Cliff are connected by a subterranean desire to re-write Afro-Caribbean history from new untold perspectives in reaction to the immense loss and/or distortions that marked the region's history for entire centuries. In this paper, I meticulously read four of Cliff's texts--"Abeng" (1984), its sequel "No Telephone to Heaven" (1987), "Claiming an Identity They Taught Me to Despise" (1980) and "The Land of Look Behind" (1985)--to look at how Cliff retrieves her black ancestors' submerged history and erased past. I particularly explore the methods Cliff deploys to re-center a history deliberately erased/or distorted by what she ironically calls "the official version" ("Free Enterprise," 1994, p. 138) in allusion to the Eurocentric narratives about the twin imperial projects of slavery and colonialism. Finally, I investigate the wealth of possibilities offered by fiction, unrecorded memory, oral story-telling and imagination to out-tell Eurocentric historiography and re-write Afro-Caribbean history from the victims' perspective: slaves, colonial subjects, marginalized female figures, black Diasporic characters, etc. |
| Abstractor: | As Provided |
| Number of References: | 18 |
| Entry Date: | 2017 |
| Accession Number: | EJ1126977 |
| Database: | ERIC |
| Abstract: | Most, if not all, writings by Jamaican writer Michelle Cliff are connected by a subterranean desire to re-write Afro-Caribbean history from new untold perspectives in reaction to the immense loss and/or distortions that marked the region's history for entire centuries. In this paper, I meticulously read four of Cliff's texts--"Abeng" (1984), its sequel "No Telephone to Heaven" (1987), "Claiming an Identity They Taught Me to Despise" (1980) and "The Land of Look Behind" (1985)--to look at how Cliff retrieves her black ancestors' submerged history and erased past. I particularly explore the methods Cliff deploys to re-center a history deliberately erased/or distorted by what she ironically calls "the official version" ("Free Enterprise," 1994, p. 138) in allusion to the Eurocentric narratives about the twin imperial projects of slavery and colonialism. Finally, I investigate the wealth of possibilities offered by fiction, unrecorded memory, oral story-telling and imagination to out-tell Eurocentric historiography and re-write Afro-Caribbean history from the victims' perspective: slaves, colonial subjects, marginalized female figures, black Diasporic characters, etc. |
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| ISSN: | 2203-4714 |
