Caryl Phillips: Crossing the River

Caryl Phillips: Crossing the River


06 Thursday
From Thu, 06/10/2016 to Fri, 07/10/2016

Location

Free



This international conference will offer new perspectives on Caryl Phillips’s fifth novel Crossing the River, which is part of the syllabus for the Agrégation.
Published in 1993 and the recipient of the James Tait Black Memorial Prize in 1994, Crossing the River weaves together four narratives of forced displacement and throws light on the slave trade in Africa in the 18th century, the journey back from America to Africa of emancipated slaves in the 19th century, the ordeal of a former slave turned frontierswoman and defeated pioneer in the American Wild West and the alienation of an Englishwoman and a black GI in England during the Second Word War. Spanning three centuries and criss-crossing three continents, the novel raises questions relating to identity, belonging, uprootedness, responsibility, loss and nostalgia.
Contributors will adopt a variety of approaches that will illuminate the main themes, narrative strategies, literary traditions, modes of writing, generic traits, structural principles and any other component of the novel.
More information
Contact :  Vanessa Guignery

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