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This volume examines a selection of life writing in English by authors from the South West Indian Ocean, namely South Africa, East Africa, Mauritius and Sri Lanka. The two motifs that run through the chapters - mourning and resilience - are theoretical frameworks that have so far not been brought into conversation in this way. The combination of trauma studies and autobiographical analysis sharpens the focus of the discussions on Indian Ocean life writing, privileging an Indian Ocean imaginary that is transnational and cross-oceanic in its orientation and pointing to networks of connections that transcend the nation state, which is often the origin of trauma in the first place. Filling a gap in Indian Ocean studies in its close readings of trauma and resilience, the book also broadens perspectives on postcolonial life writing since little attention has been paid so far to Indian Ocean autobiographical literary products. By the same token, the volume also enriches the field of Indian Ocean literary studies by incorporating life writing as an aesthetic strategy which helps to configure Indian Ocean subjectivities.
List of contents
1 Introduction: Mourning as a Resistance Trope: Trauma, History and Memory in Indian Ocean Life Writing - Esther Pujolràs-Noguer & Felicity Hand.- Part I: Mourning Memoirs.- 2 The Ectopic Insider: Exploring the Interstices of Travel Writing, Memory and History in M.G. Vassanji's And Home Was Kariakoo - Esther Pujolràs-Noguer.- 3 Of Father and Son: The Configuration of the Trauma of Return in Michael Ondaatje's Running in the Family - Esther Pujolràs-Noguer.- Part II: Female Resilience.- 4 Rhizomatic Perennials: Resilience and Survival in Kenyan Asian Memoirs - Felicity Hand.- 5 'Learning to wear a sari is a rite of passage': Shailja Patel's Inventory of the Migrant Body in Migritude - Esther Pujolràs-Noguer.- Part III: Indian Ocean Crossing.- 6 Transoceanic Connections, Past and Present. Lindsey Collen's The Indian Ocean as a Unifying Force: A Memoir - Felicity Hand.- 7 Banyans Behind Bars: Three SouthAfrican Indian Memoirs - Felicity Hand.
