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Blood, Memory, and Nation: Massacre and Mourning in Edwidge Danticat’s The Farming of Bones

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The Masters and the Slaves

Part of the book series: New Directions in Latino American Cultures ((NDLAC))

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Abstract

Ours is a century marked by massacre. There is a tendency to let history swallow massacres whole or allow only “legitimate” portions to be seen by posterity. I am interested in uncovering the erased populations caught in the tentacles of disremembering. I raise the question of Haiti, its awe-inspiring blackness, and a massacre that clouded its historical imagination for the entire century just passed. Excavating the detritus of history, I am curious about what is left, the materials with which a ravaged people navigate their current course. Theories of history, mourning, and memory proposed by Lois Parkinson Zamora, Deborah Cohn, and George Handley provide critical apparatus for this study.

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Authors

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Alexandra Isfahani-Hammond

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© 2005 Alexandra Isfahani-Hammond

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Subramanian, S. (2005). Blood, Memory, and Nation: Massacre and Mourning in Edwidge Danticat’s The Farming of Bones. In: Isfahani-Hammond, A. (eds) The Masters and the Slaves. New Directions in Latino American Cultures. Palgrave Macmillan, New York. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4039-8162-2_10

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4039-8162-2_10

  • Publisher Name: Palgrave Macmillan, New York

  • Print ISBN: 978-1-4039-6708-4

  • Online ISBN: 978-1-4039-8162-2

  • eBook Packages: Palgrave History CollectionHistory (R0)

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