Abdulrazak Gurnah’s fictions of the Swahili coast: littoral locations and amphibian aesthetics.

Michael Pearson has remarked that a “history of the ocean needs to be amphibious, moving easily between land and sea.” This article takes up his challenge within the field of literary studies, while drawing also on his notion of “littoral society,” as it engages what it describes as anamphibian aest...

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Publicado en:Social Dynamics: A Journal of African Studies Vol. 38; no. 3; pp. 499 - 516
Autor principal: Samuelson, Meg
Formato: Artículo
Publicado: Taylor & Francis Ltd 2012
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Acceso en línea:Ver este registro en EBSCOhost
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        atl: Abdulrazak Gurnah’s fictions of the Swahili coast: littoral locations and amphibian aesthetics.
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        au: Samuelson, Meg
        affil: Department of English, University of Cape Town, South Africa
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        Indian Ocean
        Pearson, Michael, 1949-
        Gurnah, Abdulrazak, 1948-
        Ocean
        Monsoons
        Slave trade
        Portuguese people
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          Indian Ocean
          Ocean
          Monsoons
          Slave trade
          Portuguese people
          Pearson, Michael, 1949-
          Gurnah, Abdulrazak, 1948-
      keyword:
        Abdulrazak Gurnah
        ambivalence
        beach
        slave trade
        Zanzibar
        Abdulrazak Gurnah
        ambivalence
        beach
        slave trade
        Zanzibar
      ab: Michael Pearson has remarked that a “history of the ocean needs to be amphibious, moving easily between land and sea.” This article takes up his challenge within the field of literary studies, while drawing also on his notion of “littoral society,” as it engages what it describes as anamphibian aestheticin the oeuvre of the Zanzibari-British novelist Abdulrazak Gurnah. It argues that the oeuvre inscribes the layered and ambivalent histories of the Swahili coast – the entanglements produced by the monsoon regime; the slave trade; Portuguese, Omani, German and British imperial designs; independence and the Zanzibar revolution – through a dual orientation fostered by the littoral. From the vantage point of the beach it presents nuanced reflections on the act of telling stories about Indian Ocean Africa that emphasise implication rather than transcendence and which are articulated through perspectival shifts and novelistic dialogism.
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    language: English
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