Caryl Phillips’in Crossing the River Romanında Siyah Atlantik’in Transkültürel Belleği

Year 2022, Volume: 21 Issue: 3, 1389 - 1404, 31.07.2022

Deniz Kırpıklı

https://doi.org/10.21547/jss.1083154

Abstract

Bu çalışmada Caryl Phillips’in Crossing the River romanında siyahi toplulukların Atlantik’teki yolculukları aracılığıyla transkültürel belleğin oluşum süreci incelenmekte ve bu sayede romanın kimlik ve siyah Atlantik deneyimi gibi kavramların tek unsurlu yapılaşmasını sorunsallaştırdığı öne sürülmektedir. Bellek, romanda çeşitli zaman dilimleri, mekânlar ve halklar arasındaki sürekliliği ören bir zemin işlevi görmektedir. Romanın parçalı yapısı ve çok sesli anlatımı, siyah diasporanın Atlantik'teki yolculuğunu yansıtmaktadır. Bu bağlamda bu çalışmada önce romanın siyahi Atlantik deneyimini Paul Gilroy tarafından kavramsallaştırıldığı şekliyle nasıl yansıttığı incelenecektir. Bunu, romanda günümüz siyahi diasporasının olası kökenlerini oluşturan kültürler arası hareketlerin ve bağlantıların nasıl şekillendiğinin ve romanın belleğin hareketini taklit eden biçimsel özelliklerinin kapsamlı bir analizi izleyecektir.

Keywords

Caryl Phillips, Crossing the River, transkültürel bellek, siyah Atlantik, kölelik

Transcultural Memory of the Black Atlantic in Caryl Phillips’s Crossing the River

Abstract

This paper argues that Caryl Phillips’s Crossing the River illustrates how the transcultural memory of the black Atlantic is constituted by the movement of black populations across the Atlantic challenging the insular approaches to identity and the totalizing accounts of the black Atlantic history. Memory serves as a ground of identity formation, which weaves continuity between various time spans, locations, and peoples in the novel. Fragmented structure and polyphonic narrative of the novel mirror the movement of the black diaspora across the Atlantic. First, the setting of the novel will be explored in the light of roots and routes of the black peoples as conceptualized by Paul Gilroy. This will be followed by a thorough analysis of the mnemonic structure of the novel to discuss the ways in which the novel illustrates transcultural movements and connections that constitute the possible origins of the present black diaspora.

Keywords

Caryl Phillips, Crossing the River, transcultural memory, the Black Atlantic, slavery

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