International Journal of English Literature and Culture

Vol. 9(5), pp. 137-143, August 2021

 ISSN: 2360-7831

https://doi.org/10.14662/ijelc2021200

 

Review

 

Abstract

 

Regarded as a state of servitude through which an individual or a group of persons is compelled to work their guts out without any possibility to get compensated or rewarded, slavery, for some centuries, had been implemented under various forms from one country to another. From the antiquity to the twentieth century, thralldom had been a profitable business that gangrened the African continent. Thus being, African and African American thinkers shoulder the mission to dust archives and lift the curtain of history to retell and re-narrate the episode of drudgery; among them LeonoaMiano and Toni Morrison. The purpose of this article is to examine the trauma of slavery from a comparative, matrifocal and afrocentred perspective so as to highlight commonalities and differences between Leonora Miano’sLa Saison de l’ombre and Toni Morrison’s Beloved. Inspired by the infamous history of slavery, these two award-winning novels not only conjure up the ordeal of slavery, but they also catalyze its haunting memory for the sake of healing, so that both characters and readers could be cleansed off its tantalizing grip and achieve catharsis and redemption. For this end, La Saison del’ombre and Beloved are woven around feminine counter-narratives that exhibit counter-memories which are often glossed over or overlooked in both African and Euro-American phallocentric official narratives. Through a comparative approach, we spotlighted the whole process of slavery, from the captivity in Africa to enslavement in America.

 

Keywords: Slavery,Trauma,Counter/Memory,Catharsis,SlaveNarratives,Responsibility  

 

Cite This Article As: SENE, A., KEÏTA, F.(2021). Excavating the Memory of Slavery in LéonoraMiano’sLa Saison de l’ombre (2013) and Toni Morrison’sBeloved (1988). Inter. J. Eng. Lit. Cult. 9(5):137-143