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International audience; This book studies the universe of Haitian plastic creation over time, since the arrival in 1492 of the first Spanish conquerors in this territory, the western third of the island, which they renamed Hispaniola. To carry out his investigation, Carlo A. Célius questions, overcomes, and reverses the discourses and representations that have been made since Western Europe, which have continuously qualified and classified all non-European artistic creation using criteria specific to the field of fine arts.The history of the modes of figuration proposed here is also the history of the monopolization, the exploitation and the transformation of a territory, a history of migrations, of subjection and extermination of populations. It is a history of struggles, liberation and societal reconfiguration, a history of images and imaginaries, of their exchanges and confrontations.In this long-term historical investigation, which borrows in turn from art history, aesthetics, anthropology and sociology, the author proposes a plural approach to figuration in the colony and post-colony which, beyond the fine arts, considers the whole of visual culture. From portraits to ritual drawings of vodou and Catholic iconography, from illustrations published in the press to scarification marks on the bodies of enslaved African captives, he highlights the complexity and the stakes of the visual, the conflicts it generates, and the phenomena of appropriation and re-appropriation.Carlo A. Célius shows how a hegemony of the fine arts was built in such a context and how, at a given moment, it was shaken.This book revisits the notion of art: it historicizes the scales of value that constitute it and the social, political, and cultural dynamics from which it evolves. With the help of a renewed conceptual framework, readers will be able to (re)discover the main characteristics of the artistic currents of the twentieth century in Haiti and appreciate some of the distinctive features of the new scene.; Ce livre étudie l'univers de la création plastique d'Haïti dans la durée, depuis l'arrivée, en 1492, des premiers conquérants espagnols sur ce territoire, tiers occidental de l'île qu'ils avaient rebaptisée Hispaniola. Pour mener son enquête, Carlo A. Célius interroge, déborde et renverse les discours et les représentations énoncés depuis l’Europe occidentale, qui ont, en continu, qualifié et classé toute création artistique non européenne à l’aide de critères propres au domaine des beaux-arts.L’histoire des modes de figuration proposée ici est aussi celle de l’accaparement, de l’exploitation et de la transformation d’un territoire, une histoire de migrations, de sujétion et d’extermination de populations. C’est une histoire de luttes, de libération et de reconfiguration sociétale ; une histoire des images et des imaginaires, de leurs échanges et de leurs confrontations.Dans cette enquête historique au long cours, qui emprunte tour à tour à l’histoire de l’art, à l’esthétique, à l’anthropologie et à la sociologie, l'auteur nous propose une approche plurielle de la figuration en colonie et postcolonie qui, au-delà des seuls beaux-arts, prend en compte l’ensemble de la culture visuelle. Du portrait aux dessins rituels du vodou et à l’iconographie catholique, des illustrations publiées dans la presse aux marques de scarification sur le corps des captifs africains réduits en esclavage, il met en lumière la complexité et les enjeux du visuel, les conflits qu’il génère, les phénomènes d’appropriation et de réappropriation.Carlo A. Célius démontre comment a pu s’édifier une hégémonie des beaux-arts dans un tel contexte et comment, à un moment donné, celle-ci a été ébranlée.Cet ouvrage revisite la notion d’art : il historicise les échelles de valeurs qui la constituent et les dynamiques sociales, politiques et culturelles à partir desquelles elle évolue. À l’aide d’un cadre conceptuel renouvelé, les lectrices et lecteurs pourront (re)découvrir les principales caractéristiques des courants artistiques du xxe siècle haïtien et apprécier quelques traits distinctifs de la nouvelle scène.

This article presents a group portrait of captives and slaves and a picture of some individual slaves’ lives in the Bagno of Leghorn and Pisa and in the House of Catechumens of Florence in the Grand Duchy of Tuscany during the period 1702-1826. This research is based on Leghorn government papers, the archive of Florence’s Ginori family and the records of the Magistrato del Bigallo.The study follows two lines of inquiry corresponding to two different scales of analysis. The first draws a group portrait from a list of slaves living at the Bagno of Leghorn and released in 1747. This portrait reveals a uniform and collective life and provides quantitative information on the latter, particularly concerning the question of the time of their captivity or their enslavement. The second line of investigation explores the experiences and individual trajectories of several slaves between Livorno, Pisa and Florence and raises questions about conclusive interpretations concerning the level of homogeneity in their living and working conditions. The presence of slaves and captives in galleys or prisons has been the subject of much research based on the many documents produced in these places, including lists of slaves that allow scholars to build a group portrait. The realization of this type of portrait requires, however, consideration of individual trajectories and differences. This is made possible by sources such as the supplications of slaves living in these places of detention as well as those resident in the House of Catechumens of Florence. The petitions of slaves, in both Pisa and Livorno, reveal the diversity of living conditions in the same place of detention. While historiography has emphasized a standardization of conditions in different environments—such as galleys and prisons—the study sheds light on how differences in physical qualities (health, physical strength, skin colour), geographical origin, professional skills or religion of captives and slaves had an impact on access to freedom, their agency, and their treatment by their owners. In addition, the sources of the Magistrato del Bigallo allow for a very subtle approach, making it possible to show for example the different experiences of a brother and a sister, both slaves and from Sub-Saharan Africa, in the House of Catechumens of Florence.These sources, less explored, bring to light formerly invisible stories of enslaved people from the Mediterranean and outside with singular trajectories that complicate existing interpretations. The two approaches, that of the group portrait and that concentrating on the individual experiences of the captives and slaves, are fundamental to developing a comprehensive understanding of the phenomenon of slavery in Tuscany. Cet article présente un portrait de groupe de captifs et d’esclaves ainsi que la vie de certains esclaves du Grand-duché de Toscane, plus précisément dans le bagne de Livourne, de Pise et dans la maison des catéchumènes de Florence entre 1702 et 1826. Les archives d’État du gouvernement de Livourne, les archives privées de la famille Ginori de Florence et du Magistrato del Bigallo dans les Archives d’État de Florence constituent le socle de cette recherche.L’étude suit deux lignes d’enquête correspondant à deux échelles d’analyse différentes. La première dessine un portrait de groupe constitué grâce à une liste de personnes esclaves ayant vécu au bagne de Livourne et devant être libérées en 1747. Ce portrait révèle une vie uniforme et collective et fournit des informations quantitatives sur ces derniers, notamment concernant la question du temps de leur captivité ou de leur mise en esclavage. La seconde ligne d’enquête explore les expériences et les trajectoires individuelles de plusieurs esclaves entre Livourne, Pise et Florence et permet de discuter une interprétation concluant à l’homogénéisation de leurs conditions de vie et de travail. La présence d’esclaves et de captifs dans les galères ou les prisons a été très étudiée grâce à l’abondance de documents produits dans ces lieux, notamment des listes d’esclaves qui permettent de construire un portrait de groupe. La réalisation de ce type de portrait exige toutefois de prendre aussi en compte les trajectoires et les différences individuelles, ce que permettent des sources comme les requêtes d’esclaves issues de ces lieux de détention ainsi que celles de la maison des catéchumènes de Florence. Les suppliques d’esclaves, entre Pise et Livourne, révèlent la diversité des conditions de vie au sein d’un même lieu de détention. Alors que l’historiographie a insisté sur une standardisation des conditions dans les différents milieux – comme les galères et les bagnes –, l’étude met en lumière la façon dont les différences de qualités physiques (santé, force physique, couleur de la peau), d’origine, de compétences professionnelles ou de religion des captifs et des esclaves ont eu un impact sur l’accès à la liberté, leur agentivité et leur traitement par leurs propriétaires. Par ailleurs, les sources du Magistrato del Bigallo permettent une approche très fine montrant par exemple des expériences différentes entre un frère et une sœur, tous deux esclaves et originaires d’Afrique sub-saharienne, dans la maison des catéchumènes de Florence.Ces sources, moins explorées, font émerger des histoires jusque-là invisibles d’esclaves de la Méditerranée et d’ailleurs aux trajectoires singulières qui viennent complexifier les interprétations. Ainsi, les deux approches, celle du portrait de groupe et celle sur les expériences individuelles des captifs et des esclaves, sont fondamentales pour une compréhension exhaustive du phénomène de l’esclavage en Toscane. Este artículo presenta un retrato de grupo de cautivos y esclavos así como la vida de algunos esclavos del Gran Ducado de Toscana, más precisamente en la cárcel de Livorno, en Pisa y en la casa de los catecúmenos de Florencia entre 1702 y 1826. Los archivos de Estado del gobierno de Livorno, los archivos privados de la familia Ginori de Florencia y los del Magistrato del Bigallo en los Archivos de Estado de Florencia constituyen el soporte de esta investigación.El estudio propone dos líneas de investigación que corresponden a dos escalas de análisis diferentes. La primera dibuja un retrato de grupo constituido gracias a una lista de personas esclavas que vivieron en la prisión de Livorno y que debían ser liberadas en 1747. Este retrato revela una vida uniforme y colectiva y brinda informaciones cuantitativas sobre ellas, especialmente relativas a la cuestión de la duración de su cautiverio o de su esclavización. La segunda línea de investigación explora las experiencias y las trayectorias individuales de varios esclavos entre Livorno, Pisa y Florencia y permite discutir una interpretación que concluye a la homogeneización de sus condiciones de vida y de trabajo. La presencia de esclavos y de cautivos en las galeras o en las cárceles ha sido muy estudiada gracias a la abundancia de documentos producidos en esos lugares, especialmente las listas de esclavos que permiten construir un retrato de grupo. La realización de este tipo de retrato exige sin embargo tomar también en cuenta las trayectorias y las diferencias individuales, lo que permiten fuentes como las solicitudes de esclavos en los lugares de detención y en la casa de catecúmenos de Florencia. Las súplicas de esclavos, entre Pisa y Livorno, revelan la diversidad de las condiciones de vida dentro de un mismo lugar de detención. Mientras que la historiografía ha insistido en una estandarización de las condiciones en sus diferentes medios – como las galeras y las cárceles – el estudio pone en relieve la manera en que las diferencias de cualidades físicas (salud, fuerza física, color de la piel), de origen, de competencias profesionales o de religión de los cautivos y de los esclavos tuvieron un impacto sobre su acceso a la libertad, su agencia y el tratamiento por parte de sus amos. Por otra parte, las fuentes del Magistrato del Bigallo permiten un enfoque muy fino que muestra, por ejemplo, diferencias entre las experiencias de un hermano y una hermana, ambos esclavos y originarios de África subsahariana, en la casa de los catecúmenos de Florencia.Estas fuentes, menos exploradas, revelan historias hasta ahora invisibles del Mediterráneo y de otras partes, implican trayectorias singulares que vienen a complejizar las interpretaciones. Así, los dos enfoques, tanto el del retrato de grupo y el de las experiencias individuales de los cautivos y de los esclavos, son fundamentales para una comprensión exhaustiva del fenómeno de la esclavitud en Toscana. Este artigo apresenta um retrato de grupo de cativos e escravos, bem como a vida de alguns escravos do Grão-Ducado de Toscana, mais precisamente nas cadeias de Livorno e de Pisa, e na casa dos catecúmenos em Florença entre 1702 e 1826. Esta pesquisa baseia-se nos arquivos de Estado do governo de Livorno, e nos arquivos particulares da família Ginori de Florença e do Magistrato del Bigallo nos arquivos de Estado de Florença.O estudo desenvolve duas linhas de investigação que correspondem a duas escalas diferentes de análise. A primeira delineia um retrato de grupo constituído a partir de uma lista de pessoas escravizadas que viveram na cadeia de Livorno e seriam libertas em 1747. Este retrato revela uma vida uniforme e coletiva, fornecendo informações quantitativas, nomeadamente o tempo do seu cativeiro ou de sua escravização. A segunda linha de investigação explora as experiências e as trajetórias individuais de alguns escravos entre Livorno, Pisa e Florença e permite questionar uma interpretação resultando na homogeneização de suas condições de vida e de trabalho. A presença de escravos e cativos nas galeras ou nas prisões foi muito estudada, devido a abundância de documentos produzidos nestes lugares, nomeadamente listas de escravos que permitem construir um retrato de grupo. No entanto, a realização deste tipo de retrato também exige levar em conta as trajetórias e diferenças individuais, o que permite fontes como os requerimentos de escravos provenientes destes lugares de retenção ou da casa dos catecúmenos de Florença. As apelos de escravos, entre Pisa e Livorno, lançam luz sobre a diversidade das condições de vida no seio de um mesmo lugar de retenção. Enquanto a historiografia insistiu numa estandardização das condições em vários contextos – como as galeras e as prisões –, este estudo realça o modo como as diferenças de qualidade física (saúde, força física, cor da pela), de origem, de competências profissionais ou de religião dos cativos e dos escravos influíram no acesso a liberdade, sua agentividade, bem como no tratamento provido por seus proprietários. Por outro lado, as fontes do Magistrato del Bigallo permitem uma abordagem muito fina mostrando por exemplo as experiências distintas entre um irmão e uma irmã, ambos escravos e oriundos de África Sub-Sahariana, na casa dos catecúmenos de Florença.Estas fontes, menos exploradas, dão a ver histórias até aqui invisíveis de escravos do Mediterrâneo e de outros lugares com trajetórias peculiares que complexificam as interpretações. Assim, ambas as abordagens, a do retrato de grupo e a das experiências individuais de cativos e de escravos, são fundamentais para entender plenamente o fenómeno da escravidão na Toscana.

Cette thèse se concentre sur les expériences des personnages féminins qui représentent les jeunes mères Afro-Américaines, dans le film biographique, Roxanne Roxanne, basé sur l’artiste de rap Lolita Shante Gooden; et dans le roman Push, de Sapphire, nom de plume de Ramona Lofton. Contrairement aux générations précédentes, aujourd’hui les féministes noires de la quatrième vague du féminisme analysent ce que les féministes hip-hop ont essayé de développer depuis la deuxième vague de féminisme. Le féminisme hip-hop permet d’examiner des questions liées à la misogynie de la culture hip-hop et parmi d’autres points concernent les femmes noires dans cet espace. Quel rôle jouent les hommes? Et qu’est-ce que cela représente dans un cadre culturel plus large? Comment les mères et les filles sont-elles représentées et affectées? Comment les enfants de ces femmes sont-ils touchés, et quelle dynamique se déroule alors dans la relation mère-fille? Mes questions servent à approfondir des sujets qui sont sous-explorées dans les études de hip-hop. Le livre The New Jim Crow par l’activiste des droits civiques et avocate Michelle Alexander est fondamental dans le contexte de ce mémoire. Les informations historiques de l’enquête d’Alexander sur la campagne américaine, « The War on Drugs », dévoilent le système de criminalisation raciale aux États-Unis et ses infrastructures sociopolitique et économique. Ce système est conçu pour contrôler la population noire depuis l’époque de la traite transatlantique des esclaves. Les œuvres hip-hop féministes ne contribuent pas seulement à augmenter la sensibilisation sur les sujets intimes pour les Afro-Américaines; mais elles aident aussi à exposer les idéologies sexistes et raciales qui privent le corps féminin noir de ses droits dans la culture populaire., This thesis focuses on the lives of female characters that left young mothers fending for survival in two works: the biopic, Roxanne Roxanne, based on rap artist Lolita Shante Gooden; and, the novel Push, by Sapphire—pen name of Ramona Lofton. Unlike previous generations, today’s fourth-wave black feminists analyze what hip-hop feminists have been trying to develop since the second wave of feminism. Hip-hop feminism enables the examination of issues related to the misogynoir of hip-hop culture, and the struggles black females encounter in this space. What role do men perform? And what does this represent within a larger cultural framework? How are mothers and daughters portrayed, and affected by hip-hop culture? How are the children of such females impacted, and what dynamic then takes place in the mother-daughter relationship? My questions serve to dig deeper into topics that are underexplored in hip-hop gender studies—specifically in working-class urban communities. Fundamental to my exploring hip-hop feminist issues is my reliance on The New Jim Crow, by civil rights activist and lawyer, Michelle Alexander. Using historical insight from Alexander’s investigation on the War on Drugs, my thesis unveils the racial criminalization system in the United States, and the larger socio-political and economical infrastructure designed to control the black population since the transatlantic slave trade. The conditions of impoverished black communities, in turn, sabotage the development of black females. Feminist hip-hop works not only contribute to creating awareness about intimate, gendered issues; but also, they help further challenge racialized ideologies that disenfranchise the black female body in popular culture.

American performance artist Dread Scott has dedicated his artistic practice to depicting the ghosts of slavery and violence that haunt the American story, subvert its institutions, and undermine social relations between peoples. His work interrogates history by seeking to engage the audience in considering their own beliefs about the past as well as the present, and provokes a political response. The artist desecrates the symbols of American myth and takes its founding heroes apart, recalling Black Panther Eldridge Cleaver’s statement, “The white heroes, their hands dripping with blood, are dead.” (Eldridge Cleaver, A Soul on Ice, Menlo Park, Ramparts, 1968) In this interview, Dread Scott looks back on his entire career, from the adoption of his professional name to his most recent works. While he emphasizes the importance of the history of slavery for understanding the power relations that govern the world, he invites us to reread these relations from an economic point of view in order to question the impact of capitalism on the origins of this violence. Le performeur et plasticien étatsunien Dread Scott a dédié sa pratique artistique à dépeindre le spectre de l’esclavage et de la violence qui hante le récit américain, tourmente ses institutions et mine les rapports sociaux entre les peuples. Son œuvre interroge l’histoire en veillant à engager le public à considérer ses propres certitudes sur le passé comme le présent et de susciter une réaction politique. L’artiste profane les symboles du mythe américain et défait ses héros fondateurs, rappelant la déclaration du Black Panther Eldridge Cleaver : « Les héros blancs, aux mains ruisselantes de sang, sont morts. » (Eldridge Cleaver, Un Noir à l’ombre, Paris, Seuil, 1969). Dans cet entretien, Dread Scott revient sur l’ensemble de sa carrière, de l’adoption de son nom d’artiste, à ses œuvres les plus récentes en passant par ses premiers coups d’éclat. S’il constate l’importance de l’histoire de l’esclavage pour la compréhension des rapports de domination qui régissent le monde, il invite avant tout à relire ces rapports d’un point de vue économique pour interroger le poids du capitalisme sur l’origine de ces violences. El artista performático y plástico estadunidense Dread Scott ha dedicado su práctica a pintar el espectro de la esclavitud y de la violencia que ronda el relato estadunidense, atormenta sus instituciones y mina las relaciones sociales entre los pueblos. Su obra interroga la historia invitando al público a reconsiderar sus propias certidumbres tanto sobre el pasado como sobre el presente y a suscitar una reacción política. El artista profana los símbolos del mito estadunidense y desarma a sus próceres, recordando la declaración del Black Panther Eldridge Cleaver: “Los héroes blancos, de manos ensangrentadas, han muerto.” (Eldridge Cleaver, Un Noir à l’ombre, Paris, Seuil, 1969). En esta entrevista, Dread Scott revisa el conjunto de su carrera, desde la adopción de su nombre artístico a sus obras más recientes, pasando por sus primeras irrupciones. Si bien resalta la importancia de la historia de la esclavitud para la comprensión de las relaciones de dominación que rigen el mundo, invita a releer esas relaciones desde un punto de vista económico para analizar el peso del capitalismo en el origen de estas violencias. O performer e artista visual estadunidense Dread Scott tem dedicado a sua prática artística à representação da escravidão e da violência que assombram a história americana, atormentam suas instituições e abalam as relações sociais entre os povos. Sua obra interroga a história, procurando levar o público a considerar as suas certezas sobre o passado como o presente e provocar uma reação política.O artista profana os símbolos do mito americano e desfaz os seus heróis fundadores, lembrando a declaração do Black Panther Eldridge Cleaver: « Os heróis brancos, com as mãos cheias de sangue, morreram. » (Eldridge Cleaver, Un Noir à l’ombre, Paris, Seuil, 1969) Nesta entrevista, Dread Scott evoca o conjunto de sua carreira, desde a adopção de seu nome de artista até suas obras mais recentes, passando pelos seus primeiros estrondos. Se ele reconhece a importância da história da escravidão para entender as relações de dominação que regem o mundo, ele convida-nos sobretudo a reler essas relações de um ponto de vista económico para questionar o peso do capitalismo na origem dessa violência.

Pragmatic, ethical and aesthetic purposes are simultaneously combined in the narratives depicting the decreed mass removal of Japanese Canadians from their Pacific Coast homes during World War II. When dealing with this extremely painful travel experience, Canadian writers of Japanese ancestry have adopted a pragmatist approach that stresses—rather than contradicts—reciprocally reinforcing ethical and aesthetic values. By emphasizing the elements of beauty, pleasure and harmony that are essential in any artistic creation, such authors have both enhanced moral reflection on the part of their audience and strengthened the practical efficacy of their factually grounded works of fiction. All these writers are keen on providing accurate representations of a traumatic journey they were involved in, either directly or through the memoirs of the members of their families who were forced to undertake it. In their writings there are recurrent descriptions of evacuees standing on railway platforms while being insulted and threatened by vociferous crowds. These migrants generally remain silent after boarding CPR trains with their remaining possessions crammed into the single suitcase that each person is allowed to carry as luggage on the trip eastwards. But as Japanese-Canadian novelists have narrated the same events from various perspectives and focused on different aspects of their ordeal, their accounts are far from being uniform. Their literary texts are marked by the categories of genre, gender, and ethnicity, as well as by the personal attitudes of each individual author. The characters portrayed express a wide range of feelings: hope, patience, calmness, serenity, resignation, fear, shame, distress, bitterness, and anger. They invariably miss the ocean, which they mentally connect with their past freedom, and some of them manage to soothe their emotional wounds when the landscape of the prairies brings them memories of their beloved sea. Some of these displaced people find comfort in the magnificent scenery that is ironically set up as the physical background to the hardships suffered. Unable to move on unrestrained once they have reached their destination in the internment camps or in the ghost towns where they have been relocated, others resort to fantasy in order to escape through imaginary voyages that release them from their otherwise unbearable situation.

Aboard slave ships life was a microcosm of tragedy, survival and sometimes friendship. It was generally thought that the ripple effect of the wealth of slave trade was the reason why many people sought fortune on the other side of the Atlantic in the 17th and 18th centuries. About 2,108 slaving voyages set out from the city of Bristol between 1698 and 1807. The city is considered to have been the foremost slave port in the world from 1730 to 1744. This paper is an attempt to understand men who embarked despite ill-treatment, disease, death and disappointment on ships weighing between 27 and 420 tons and carrying what was referred to as ‘black cargoes’. These men did not always receive their wages. Some were discharged in the Caribbean and a few were enslaved on the North African coast. They seemed to have had neither economic power nor political influence and yet they were key players in both the expansion of the slave trade and the abolition movement. An analysis of evidence—logbooks, accounts of sailors, muster rolls and family of crew letters—may shed further light on the subject.

When the word ‘transportation’ is mentioned in connection with Van Diemen’s Land, it is invariably taken to refer to the white convicts. However, between 1830 and 1834 with the Governor’s permission, George Robinson, a local tradesman, rounded up the last remaining Tasmanian Aborigines and had them transported to Flinders Island in Bass Strait, where they remained until 1847. Supposedly for their own good, this forced transportation undoubtedly hastened the deaths of the vast majority. This paper proposes to examine three novels: The Savage Crows (1976) by the white Australian writer Robert Drewe, Doctor Wooreddy’s Prescription for Enduring the Ending of the World (1983) by the indigenous writer and activist Mudrooroo and English Passengers (2000) by the English novelist Matthew Kneale. All three novels deal with the above mentioned events and show how the initial transportation of white convicts led almost inevitably to the transportation of the indigenous population. The first part of this paper will analyse how the novels work as historical fiction; in other words, how the reader is ‘transported’ not only back in time but also into an unfamiliar indigenous culture. The second part will consider transport as an emotional effect. Drewe’s novel is very much about white guilt and the need for expiation. Mudrooroo is writing for both white and indigenous readers and attempts to offer a new reading of the past which will improve black/white relations in the present. Kneale has sufficient distance to treat things with a wry humour and is, arguably, the most effective in denouncing past atrocities.

In the 1990s Kara Walker was the focus of contentious public debate around contemporary black artists’ recuperation of racist imagery. Elder artists Betye Saar and Howardena Pindell denounced Walker and her art as products of a “plantation system and mentality.” Viewing the conflict between the three women as a dialogue-as-battle between two generations of female artists reframes the debate as an intriguing subversion of the white male Modernist artistic cliché “In art one must kill one’s fathers.” This essay reexamines the debate through the lens of Mae Henderson’s model of black women writer’s tradition as dialogism, arguing that Toni Morrison’s Beloved can be read as inverting the classical psychoanalytic Oedipal complex, recast with three black women. Rather than a battle between father and son for access to the mother’s body, Beloved details the struggles of a mother and her two daughters to claim ownership over one another in the wake of slavery. Because Beloved posits a struggle to come to terms with the ghosts of slavery and ancestors, I propose that the struggles between Walker, Saar, and Pindell should be interpreted as an inevitable dialogue between generations about how to negotiate histories and representations of slavery and ancestral trauma. I argue that it is not just Walker’s grotesque tableaux that performs a “return of the repressed” but that the artist has chosen to embody a Beloved-like persona in her role as controversial art celebrity, so that, like Morrison’s Beloved, Walker attempts a metaphorical matricide of her artistic mothers.

In this essay I explore Fred D’Aguiar’s long poem Bloodlines (2000). I shall consider why I believe Bloodlines is not merely, as several critics suggest, one of D’Aguiar’s weaker texts, but makes an important contribution to his continuing concerns with the ethics of representing slavery and the remembrance of this past. I shall suggest that much of the motivation behind the violent opening section of Bloodlines is derived from D’Aguiar’s attempt to persuade his reader of the difficult nature of relationships between black and white people during the time of slavery and the ultimate failure of inter-racial love as a vehicle for transforming the legacies of this past. D’Aguiar indicates in Bloodlines that the trauma of slavery can never be entirely worked through; slavery, he repeatedly tells us, persists in the racism of today. Bloodlines arguably offers the kind of postmemorial mourning suggested by Marianne Hirsch. Postmemory, as conceptualised by Hirsch, is not restricted to actual descendants of trauma but is expanded to include the “ethical” and multiple connections between twentieth- or twenty-first-century readers and the past of slavery. In the absence of living witnesses or accounts from slaves, and where history fails him in returning to the past of slavery, D’Aguiar is also compelled to creatively imagine this past.

In literature, railways are frequently considered to have the ability to produce nations and are thought to have been a major component in the emergence of the Indian nation in particular. This idea that the railways of India somehow founded a nation or nationalism is highly contradictory due to the fact that they were introduced by British imperialism and were denounced as propagating evil by the father of the nation himself, M. K. Gandhi. The tide of humanity that gives rise to a community on the railway along with the unavoidable political influence as a result of national events are significant in establishing a distinct and complex relationship between the railway and the nation in South Asia. The train and the train station emerge as being at once all-inclusive and marginal, a home yet also a site of stark divisions, namely in the form of caste prejudice, which is something that the nation emulates on a larger scale. By examining a diverse range of works in South Asian literature, including Kim by Rudyard Kipling, Train to Pakistan by Khushwant Singh, A Fine Balance by Rohinton Mistry and The Penguin Book of Indian Railway Stories, the power of the railway to represent the various facets of the nation on a localised level is both apparent and undeniable.

The perception of the Indian woman in the Caribbean has been one of docility, placidity and subservience, limited by notions of victimhood and subjugation. Much emphasis is often placed on the fact that the women who left India as ‘bound coolies’ were prostitutes, dancers and low caste women. Almost from the beginning of their indentureship, there has been an erroneous assumption that these women were kidnapped en masse or duped into ‘this new system of slavery’ by unscrupulous arkatis. Closer examination of the history has shown that these women who crossed the kala pani or ‘black waters’ were among the most resilient of human beings. Desperate women, in great acts of defiance, resistance and independence, demonstrated their resourcefulness by choosing to travel unaccompanied by relatives to places like Fiji, Mauritius and parts of the Caribbean as indentured labourers. Because of the received perception of Indian women in the Caribbean, there has been a tendency to focus on the fact that they were lured into this ‘new system of slavery’ as well as on their subsequent exploitation on the plantations. As a consequence we have never really considered what the journey meant for these women.

One of Rushdie’s recurring images features Indian migrants on an airplane en route to Great Britain. The inaugural scene of The Satanic Verses may be well known, but several similar crossings are to be found in The Moor’s Last Sigh and The Ground beneath her Feet, too. Such East-West passages recall what Edward Said had once described as the ‘voyage in’: the ex-colonised sets foot on the ex-colonizer’s land and responds to the very colonial gesture. This paper shows how Rushdie’s writing tends to represent those crossings in terms of initiation rites, which contribute to create and consolidate postcolonial identity. Thanks to the celestial environment and to the limbo-like nature of the aircraft, the migrant crosses imaginary frontiers (images of membranes or moulting skin abound) and experiences profound metamorphoses. The structure of initiation (separation, transition and reintegration) works as the framework through which characters achieve their political and individual coming-of-age.

According to a popular saying—or is it a song?— ‘it’s a wild, wild world! ’ So it is, as every day tends to confirm! Inspired by this profound wisdom, I would offer something like a variation ‘Transport is a wide, wide word’ Now, since the door has been opened to puns, we might as well carry on a little further and see what is hidden behind the façade of such an ordinary, everyday and apparently innocent word as ‘transport’. In fact, the more one looks into it, the more meanings it seems to a...

James Tod (1782-1835) spent twenty-two years in India, from 1800-1822. He published two texts about his experiences in India: (a) Annals & Antiquities of Rajasthan in 2 volumes, 1829 & 1832; (b) Travels in Western India, 1830 posth. Since Tod was an enthusiastic traveller, this paper first looks at the bright side of Tod’s transports in Rajputana—his appreciation of the natural beauty of various spots in Rajasthan and his passion for historical information to the point of making wild, unfounded hypotheses to explain certain historical phenomena. Then attention is paid to the darker side of Tod’s transports in Rajasthan—the problems of physical travel at that time due to rigorous climate conditions, difficult terrains and Tod’s delicate health. Also, the constraints on Tod’s optimism in his role as British political agent, caused by resistance to new British policies among the Rajputs and distrust of Tod among his British colonial superiors. The paper concludes with the ambivalence of Tod in British colonial India, since he developed for and received from his Rajput associates a genuine, reciprocated affection, while never ceasing to be, at all times, committed to the furthering of British rule and interests.

In the past, slave narratives served to critique and reconstruct a given identity; contemporary applications of this genre demonstrates the growth of this identity as it grapples with questions of silence and authority. The question of silence is multi-layered in that it addresses many of the following: the silence of critics concerning certain aspects of the slave narrative, the silence of characters on the institution of slavery, and the silence of African American writers on the contemporary incorporation of this literary inheritance. The question of authority is also one that can be examined from different angles: authority of the African American character, authority of the African American individual, and ultimately, the authority of the African American artist/writer. Edward Jones’s The Known World offer examples of how these elements function to inform and deform not only characters, but the African American literary community. The texts also reflect the critical shift of the slave narrative genre from a largely descriptive perspective of slavery to one that is more prescriptive in nature. Contemporary authors, like Jones, seem to view some of the silences incurred by slavery as ones that cannot and will not ever be articulated by anyone. However, this position is juxtaposed by another argument that of all writers, it is the African American who is best authorized to probe and communicate these silences.

David Boxer’s The Black Books, it is proposed in this essay, is an engagement in a “midrasic” form of visual exegesis, whereby the artist, in a formal visual sense, explores and deconstructs while at the same time illuminates upon the richness of Western cultural production as it co-existed with the cruelty and dehumanizing features of the human condition within the institution of British Atlantic Slavery. The artist achieves an ongoing commentary on fragmented and discursive narratives through the modern practices of mechanical reproduction and montage. Together with this proposition, my essay will argue that despite the differences in media (text vs. the image), The Black Books correspond more with features common to the neo-slave narrative novel than with the original slave narrative as a genre. Christopher Cozier’s work, like Boxers’ is conceptual and serial in nature. His work is defined around a signature subjectivity as observed in his “picturewriting”. I argue that Cozier in collaborating with writers, collides drawing with written ideas on the postmodern Caribbean scene that become visual, creating a kind of new genre which is very hybrid and close to the “memoir”. Saidiya Hartman’s Lose Your Mother: A Journey Along the Atlantic Route (2007) a visual novel/commentary/memoir, comes to mind. In this sense, Cozier’s recent works, like Boxer’s also shares features in common with the neo-slave narrative as opposed to the traditional narrative.