Itwouldbenomistaketostatethatamongthecommonest routes contemporary literature in English takes is one of asserting history'sandreality'sfictionalityanddissolvingtheboundarybetween real and imaginary. The route is certainly common enough in the work of the controversial British author Jeanette Winterson, whose proseisaneverendinginterplaybetweenfactandfiction,realityand fantasy. Winterson'scriticallyneglectedArt&Lies(1995)epitomises the disintegration ofclearcutlinesbetween(auto)biography, history andfictionthroughasetofbinarieslikeart/life,art/lie,orfact/fiction, transformingourideasoftruthandlie.SimilarconcernsinformThe Passion (1987), which is more universally praised. The parallels between the two works suggest a continuum in Winterson's literary explorations of the nature of truth and reality, the status of fiction andhistoricalrecord,andtheusefulnessofbinariesandlabels.This paper aims at exploring how these polyphonic prose pieces rebel againstsinglepointsofview,redefinethenotionsofhistoryasfactand storytellingasfabrication,andexhibitapreferenceforthetruthofthe imaginationandunofcialperspectives.
Memory and rememoration were crucial for the (re)construction of postcolonial identities in the heyday of historical and cultural retrieval in earlier postcolonial literature. With the gradual change of focus towards considerations of identity construction in neocolonial societies, the importance of rememoration faded while memory continues to haunt characters in contemporary postcolonial fiction, as Caryl Phillips’s writing illustrates. His protagonists retrace memories of past lives, seeking refuge from loss, exile and marginalization, risking permanent entrapment in the labyrinths of past traumas. Although withdrawal into memory prevents some of them from adapting to their surroundings, memory in Phillips’s work as a whole serves as a meeting point for pogrom survivors. It is a polyphonic, heterotopian, heterogeneous imaginary community to which the uprooted figures of his novels belong. The aim of this article is to examine the function of memory in Phillips’s vision, arguing that the established space of memory is designed to mend the rift between value-infested polarities.
Književnost XX i XXI veka obeležilo je ispitivanje i preplitanje pravaca, tradicija, žanrova, formi i medija, a teorija je odgovorila na tu tendenciju potrebom da se granice jasnije odrede. To nastojanje dovode u sumnju dela kakva stvaraju pisci poput Dž. M. Kucija, koja u samopropitivanju na međi modernizma, postmodernizma i postkolonijalizma ukidanjem granica i slojevitošću izmiču strogo razgraničenim kategorijama. Upravo se stoga ovde postkolonijalizam uzima kao tek jedan od mogućih ključeva za razumevanje Kucijeve proze, u razmatranju nasilja, rasnih i klasnih podela i neumitne dijalektike mi/oni kao kolonijalne zaostavštine u savremenom južnoafričkom društvu u romanima Gvozdeno doba i Sramota.
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