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Summary Zong! - Writing Across Borders (LDCL4021B)
Literary analysis of Zong! and other related works. exploring the effect of trauma, both fresh and generational, on the mind and body.
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Zong! "is a work of haunting, a wake of sorts, where thespectres of the undead make themselves
present"(M.NourbeSe Philip, "Notanda"). Discuss.
Basic points and Ideas:
Foot notes: giving actual names and identities to the lost victims of zong and of
slavery. It's significance and relevance to the question.
Haunting through trauma that is passed down generationally through art etc... So
that the dead may never truly be dead and that they will forever be kept alive and
honoured in memory even if they didn't get that in life --> language as a way of
passing on and communicating trauma, the reclamation of a language that was used
to suppress the suffering of minorities, breaking it apart and forcing it back together
again to express the attack on humanity and stripping of identity that is brought
about by Gregson vs Gilbert focus on the compensational charges instead of lives
lost.
It is a multi-faceted wake of sorts: honours the dead as they were not honoured in
life, gives them the recognition they deserve. But also an act of historic defiance, as
this memoriam only comes hundreds of years after the fact --> the wake does not
just honour the dead but reclaims history as a narrative, rewriting it to put the
people first and make sure that they are not literally just footnotes in history. Going
against the western European narrative of Imperialism. --> The wake brings these
murdered Africans back into public memory.
Zong! # 11
"Suppose" (repeated x5)
Poem starts and end with this, creating a cyclical effect showing the lack of progress
made throughout history.
An imperative commanding the attention of the reader, inviting them into a
discourse about race and slavery and it's impact on our modern times and history.
Prestigious vs vernacular language.
"is"
A sequence down one side of the page is given to the reader, consisting of verbs.
"not"
Repeated in it's own sequence respectfully down the other side of the page.
Its repetition reflects how this is not the first time that something like this has
happened. Through this the hope of change is dampened by the reality of what the
law does and does not do. The contrast of idealisation versus reality demands
attention from the reader.
The empty spaces serve the purpose of highlighting the failure to recognize the
suffering of humans infavour for the progression of the economy.
General Notes:
, Zong! Is part of a movement aimed at dismantling the colonial past. HOW? Main
features of decolonising the past = reconsidering the narrative of history and it's
symbols --> this case specifically referring to the Gregson Vs Gilbert report and how
it erases the black lives lost, even legitimizing and justifying their murder.
o The case: is a confrontation to the owners of Zong and it's underwriters over
the insurance money to cover for the loss of "property" (how those killed
were referred to in the document).
o Philip seeks historical justice by confronting and questioning commemorated
hegemonic white history.
o It is the absence of historic responsibility and accountability, the erasure of
identity, it is these absences that make up Zong! As a literary form of poetic
justice.
o representation in of itself is historic justice because it readdresses the
massacre and the court case as an active act of erasure. It challenges the
documents denial of the victims identity, and allows them a legitimate place
within history as right-baring subjects.
o Philip's Zong! Denies representation as a way of engaging with it. The
abences and breaks in her work, the lack of representation, has the
juxtaposed effect of bringing the lack of representation within history into
light. If a wake is to observe the deathness of a body that used to once be
alive.
"wake" according to OED > The observance of a dead body as part of a funeral
custom/rite. Is Zong! A wake for the murdered victims of the massacre, if the poem
doesn't actively provide anything to observe? the actual absences - the lack of - is in
itself observable.
Superficially the text is reconstruction and a dismantlement of the Gregson vs Gilbert
case, it is not a direct re-telling of the massacre. But this is the point Philip is trying to
get at.
o "There is no telling this story, it must be told." (189)
Shows there is a significance to be found within the empty spaces
which mirror the voicelessness of the slaves by making its absence
strikingly obvious. While at the same time highlighting the violence of
the people by dismembering the language used in the court case, this
can be read as an attempt to bring forth the loss of human life,
reclaiming humanity and identity and finally recognizing them beyond
the pure economical perspectives the report sees them as.
Within these poems, Philip does this in order to reverse the damage
the court report has done - by prioritizing the people over the money
o The language of the legal case is deconstructed and re-remembered with the
purpose of emphasizing the victims that are refused a voice within this
document and this act of violence, and that is refused a place within history.
o The language of law and order present in the report is fragmented with the
purpose of creating a new and defamiliarized literary experience that forces
us out of imperial amnesia. This scrutinization of language leading to its
fragmentation through the rearrangement of letters, words, sentences etc...
Is done to the extreme in order to negotiate the reality of this impossible act
of dehumanization while still maintaining the violence involved with stripping
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