Oceanic Histories and Protean Poetics: The Surge of the Sea in Zoë Wicomb's Fiction.

This article offers a close reading of the sea - as trope, archive, and living presence - in Wicomb's oeuvre. Charting the undercurrents of meaning rippling across Wicomb's texts, it finds in the sea an emblem of Wicomb's aesthetic and ethical concerns. The sea is shown to house an archive that chal...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Journal of Southern African Studies Vol. 36; no. 3; pp. 543 - 558
Main Author: Samuelson, Meg
Format: Literary Criticism
Published: Taylor & Francis Ltd Sep2010
Subjects:
Online Access:View this record in EBSCOhost
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        atl: Oceanic Histories and Protean Poetics: The Surge of the Sea in Zoë Wicomb's Fiction.
      aug:
        au: Samuelson, Meg
        affil: Stellenbosch University
      su:
        Wicomb, Zoë, 1948-2025
        You Can't Get Lost in Cape Town (Book)
        Playing in the Light (Book)
        David's Story (Book)
        Ocean in literature
        Fiction
        African women authors
        Travel writing
      sug:
        subj:
          Ocean in literature
          Fiction
          African women authors
          Travel writing
          You Can't Get Lost in Cape Town (Book)
          Playing in the Light (Book)
          David's Story (Book)
          Wicomb, Zoë, 1948-2025
      ab: This article offers a close reading of the sea - as trope, archive, and living presence - in Wicomb's oeuvre. Charting the undercurrents of meaning rippling across Wicomb's texts, it finds in the sea an emblem of Wicomb's aesthetic and ethical concerns. The sea is shown to house an archive that challenges nationalist histories and unsettles their temporal divisions, throwing textual meaning and identities into flux. It summons readers to recognise the uncanny return of repressed narratives and to embark on trans-oceanic readings of local and land-bound narratives and histories.
      pubtype: Academic Journal
      doctype: Literary Criticism
      src: R
    language: English
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