Memory in the Work of Caryl Phillips: Sanctuary and/or Prison?

Abstract

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.

Collective Memory in the Diaspora as Represented in Crossing the River by Caryl Phillips and Small Island by Andrea Levy

“…Therefore, to pursue her dreams abroad, Hortense constructs a business deal with Gilbert in Jamaica, which states, "I will lend you the money, we will be married, and you can send for me to come to England when you have a place for me to live" (Levy 82). Once she is there, she discovers that the memory of a modest home is, in reality, a small shabby room with "dark brown walls", "a broken chair", "a window with torn curtain", and "a crack in the ceiling"; moreover, part of the room is equipped with "a sink in the corner" and a "gas-ring" for cooking (levy [16][17][18][19][20][21][22][23][24]. Consequently, such reality drives Hortense to replace the imaginative representation of her modest future home with the pitiful architectural memory-image of "jagged black lines of cracking" that are everywhere in the room (Levy 186).…”

“…In agreement with the pervious study, (Di Maio 2000) stresses the fact that Phillips's attempt to activate the memory of the Atlantic slave trade and its multiple geographical crossings beyond national borders is to rewrite the untold damaging story of slavery by the Western discourse. Furthermore, (Cvijanović 2015) claims that memory and rememoration are presented by Phillips as crucial instruments for the retrieval of pre-colonial subjects' lost, denied or marginalized histories in the global historical records. Therefore, it is possible to say that memory can help us to establish a strong link with one's past.…”