This essay offers a reading of Glissant’s work on memory and history, arguing that traumatic experience is central to that work and consequent conceptions of identity. I explore the function of traumatic memory in relation to Glissant’s notions of the past and also futurity, both of which work with a sense of the painful past that simultaneously…[Read more]

This essay offers a reading of Glissant’s work on memory and history, arguing that traumatic experience is central to that work and consequent conceptions of identity. I explore the function of traumatic memory in relation to Glissant’s notions of the past and also futurity, both of which work with a sense of the painful past that simultaneously…[Read more]

This essay examines James Baldwin’s conception of what he calls “black English” and its link to historical and cultural identity. I link Baldwin’s defense of black English to his reflections on the sor- row songs and sound, which draws on long-standing accounts of musicality as the foundation of the African-American tradition. In order to demonst…[Read more]