Riassunto esame Cultura e letteratura inglese I, prof. Polopoli, libri consigliati The Black Atlantic, Gilroy e In the Falling snow, Phillips

The Black Atlantic di Paul Gilroy – In the Falling Snow di Caryl

Phillips

Oggi vediamo una società inglese colorata, dove differenti culture non solo coesistono ma sono

un mix, risultato certamente dalla globalizzazione odierna ma anche dal passato imperiale

dell’impero.

Today Britain is a rainbow of colours and cultures. Britain and British society of course

the two are rainbow of colours and cultures and Britain cannot be considered an

autochthon society of true born British man. Autochthon means society whose people

originated from the society they live in. This is due to globalisation but also to Britain

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history of imperialism. In fact in 19 century great Britain emerged as an imperial

nation and the global power. British empire was the greatest empire the world has

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ever seen. It began in 15 and 16 centuries when global exploration began to

establish overseas colonies. One of the most important reason why these colonies

were established was trade and financial benefit. In this sense colonialism has to do

with capitalism. The years which go from 1815 to 1914 are referred to as Britain’s

emperor century. This time the British empire included more than a quarter of the

world’s population and it was said that the sun never set on the British empire. The

empire was at his heat during the reign of queen victoria and there is no doubt that

black slavery and the exploitation of black people has been at the heart of British

empire and its structure. Across the Atlantic ocean between Europe, Africa and the

Americas .

The triangular trade is so called because the journey of the ship across the Atlantic

connected 3 continents and the economies of 3 different continental regions. The

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trading slaves consists in 3 parts: the 1 one was from Europe to Africa and it’s the

outward passage, Europeans exchanged above all weapons and gun powder for black

slaves, that is for human beings. This human cargo was transported across the Atlantic

ocean. The ships were densely packed. The voyage was brutal and terrible. And

because of the bad living conditions many Afrikaans died and those who died were

thrown over the boat. It is the most dangerous part of the journey. Sometimes blacks

were thrown over the boats when even if they were still alive. Slaves were packed like

cargo between decks and often had to lie in each other’s face and once in America

they were sold to slave owners who used slaves to work their plantation. African

people were turn into object. The Afrikaans slave are volt with any cultural products

that is with plantations goods. So Europeans brought back sugar, coffee , cotton,

spices. The journey back home, back to England is the last round of the triangular

trade. It has been estimated that during 300 years of this operation over 12 million

blacks were shipped in chain across the Atlantic middle passage. The Atlantic middle

passage or simply the middle passage refers to the Atlantic crossing from Africa to

Americas, experience by co-modified human cargo, so human beings turned into

object. And moved to new world slavery many slave trading ships troubled into a

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triangular pattern with 3 main passages: the 1 one started in England, the main

passage transported manufactured goods to west Africa.

Middle passage as if 2 simple words can delineates a space that is not specifically

Britain or America or Africa but it’s a mix of all these cultures. The Atlantic black

because of the skin colour of the body of black people thrown over the ships both dead

or alive. As for the title of Paul Gilroy’s text, capitalism is connected to modernity

according to Gilroy we cannot understand the experience of modernity, we fought

making reference to the black Atlantic. As for the term diaspora, of course it comes

from Greek and means dispersal. The original meaning of the term refers to a physical

dispersal of Jews (diaspora degli ebrei) throughout the world. But it is also used to ref

to people who have been dispersed, scattered, displayed, dislocated from their

homeland due to exile. So the term is used to describes groups of people who had

been removed from their homeland and forced to migration. Gilroy’s black Atlantic has

to do with diaspora. It foregrounds the flow movement of people within the black

Atlantic to avoid cultural essentialism, that characterises cultural nationalism. Cultural

essentialism according to theorists of cultural essentialism, culture and identities

remain always the same because their essence doesn’t not change, that’s why

essentialism. But we know that both culture, identities and also cultural identities

always undergo to an unstoppable change because as subject we change, we

experience certain things, we face certain situations , we move towards certain

countries, certain cultures and we change, revolve. We as cultural identities never

remain the same. So cultural essentialism doesn’t exist. Nationalism is always based

on cultural essentialism.

Siamo sempre in costante sviluppo. The black Atlantic becomes a transnational space of

cultural exchange that connects people. (visione positiva del black Atlantic, non soltanto come

luogo di rottura e di schiavitù ma anche come luogo che unisce le persone, luogo di scambio, le

navi con il loro andirivieni creano mobilita, dentro la nave ce scambio. E una visione positiva,

altrimenti non ci sarebbe letteratura allora il popolo black doveva soccombere per sempre).

The black Atlantic is a space of dispersion and ruptures, but it’s at the same time a

transnational space of connections, of linkages because it connects people.

Cosi teorizzato e cosi inteso , il black Atlantic è certamente uno spazio geografico , quello che

abbiamo visto delineato dalle navi nel commercio degli schiavi ma diventa anche potente

strumento evocative che si riferisce a una dimensione che va al di la della sua fisicità e che ha

un valore morale, valore di ricordo, è lo spazio della tratta degli schiavi, del dolore degli

schiavi, è una metafora che evoca esperienze storiche , se dico che è una metafora non voglio

negare la sua esistenza , posta .a sua esistenza fisica, il black Atlantic è altro, anche l’aggettivo

black ha un significato che è altamente metaforico, siamo a un livello superiore. (Esso erode

questi confini, queste frontiere delle nazioni, visto che è uno spazio transnazionale le frontiere

vengono attraversate, erose, le frontiere diventano liquide, cadono. L’oceano atlantico diventa

potente strumento che veicola l’instabilità perché è liquido, instabilità significa la mobilità, il

cambiamento. Lungi da ogni idea di cultura ferma nell’essenzialismo, statica, tutto è in venire,

si sviluppa, cambia, progredisce e allora ecco che siccome è spazio di mobilità e siccome

questi soggetti vengono strappati alla loro origine le roots, le radici vengono trasformate in

routes, in strade, si aprono nuovi orizzonti). Va oltre le strutture della nazione e i limiti. Lo stato

nazione non tiene più perché è punto di incrocio, di mescolanza , di intersezione, di ibridismo,

di impurità, di incontro, di scambio.

Then the black Atlantic is a visible space , a geographic space and as a material space

it is characterized by movement. It is precisely the liquidity of the ocean and its

dynamic mobility better reduce the ocean to a metaphorical space of displacement

whose instability metaphorically reproduces the fluidity of the identities it has

produced. It questions the idea of place-based identities that had their roots in a land

and are marked by stability. The relationship between identity and place is often taken

for granted and the idea of belonging has usually to do with this relationship. Our

sense of belonging is linked to the place we come from.

(stiamo parlando di identità culturali, però il nazionalismo ha anche a che fare con il

nazionalismo certamente place-based, l’identità nazionale è certamente place-based).

Which in turn has to do with the idea of origins to the place we come from, but the

middle passage becomes a symbol of this rupture and so the stable relationship

between place and identity is disrupted, broken. The black Atlantic offers a theoretical

framework (una cornice teorica) to reflect on how space, place, identity are all marked

by difference.

Il messaggio è che con questo spostamento, con questa mobilità, niente e nessuno, nessun

soggetto, nessuna identità, nessuna cultura rimane intoccato, puro, fermo nell’essenzialismo,

ma tutto è un progredire, un evolvere, un cambiamento e l’atlantico diventa potente strumento

per indagare e definire questo cambiamento quindi ogni cosa è caratterizzata dalla differenza.

The black Atlantic is at the same time a place of disruption and at the same time a

space of connection. Non può essere connection se prima non c’è mobilità, va da se.

Its culture dimension it is a space of transit and of cultural encounter that’s why it’s

transnational, it is a space of exchange, it is intercultural because it is the result of the

mixing of different cultures. It is marked by hybridity (ibridismo, impurità). The rise

concept of the black Atlantic conveys the idea of race as transnational and

intercultural rather than national.

Philips

The mobility of Philips characters is a challenge even in traditional neologism because

a traditional narratives belong to the main narrative, the western narrative, the

European narrative , the colonial narrative. And this colonial narrative also defined as

the narrative of the nation