Global Crusoe: Comparative Literature, Postcolonial Theory and Transnational Aesthetics

About Telling: Ghosts and Hauntings in Contemporary Drama and Poetry

Abstract: ........................................................................................................................................... ii Acknowledgments ......................................................................................................................... iii Table of Contents .......................................................................................................................... iv List of Figures ................................................................................................................................. vi Preface ............................................................................................................................................ vii 1 Introduction: Speaking of Ghosts ........................................................................................... 1 1.1 Purpose, Method, Definitions ......................................................................................... 1 1.2 Talking Ghosts: On Ghost Stories and Criticism ....................................................... 26 2 How to Tell A Ghost Story .................................................................................................... 45 2.1 Field Survey: A Brief History of Ghost Stories and the Theatre ............................... 45 2.2 Major Argument: About Telling Ghost Stories .......................................................... 52 2.3 Speaking of Ghosts: Conor McPherson’s The Weir ................................................... 61 2.4 An Irish Gothic: Marina Carr’s By the Bog of Cats... ................................................. 76 2.5 Staging South African Photography and the Ghost of Sizwe Banzi ......................... 90 2.6 A Haunting Machine: Theatrical Technologies and Samuel Beckett’s Shades ..... 108 2.7 Haunting Oceans, Mourning Languages: J.M. Synge and Derek Walcott ............ 135 3 Witness to Ghosts ................................................................................................................. 155 3.1 Field Survey: Transnational Poetics and the Globalgothic ..................................... 155 3.2 Major Argument: Voice, Medium, Rhythm, and the Poetry of Dead Metaphors162 3.3 Eavan Boland and the Haunted Chorus .................................................................... 187 3.4 Breyten Breytenbach and the Afrikaans Gothic ....................................................... 209 3.5 Nohow On from Here: Samuel Beckett’s Worsening Writings .............................. 235 3.6 Scholia on a Case Study: Imagining the Zong ........................................................... 259

Moments of Rupture: Narratological Readings of Contemporary German Literature

Abstract: Moments of Rupture: Narratological Readings of Contemporary German Literature

Towards an archipelagraphic literary methodology: reading the archipelago in Julieta Campos’ The Fear of Losing Eurydice

Abstract: Despite the recent archipelagraphic turn in island studies, there have been few literary studies of the archipelago. This paper has three aims. The first is to bring to light an archipelagraphic literary text that has not yet been explored in Island Studies Journal: Cuban writer Julieta Campos’s The Fear of Losing Eurydice. The second is to develop ‘archipelagraphy’ (a term coined by DeLoughrey) into a methodology for reading literary texts, putting it into practice through an analysis of The Fear of Losing Eurydice. This archipelagraphic analysis reveals that Campos’ text destabilizes the concept of the island as tabula rasa, an end-goal in a utopian quest. Instead utopia emerges as a call uttered by multiple voices across different times and spaces, resulting in the ‘archipelago of desire’ motif. This emancipatory cartography remaps western geographies of centre and periphery, instead stressing the connections between the Caribbean, Asia, Europe, and Africa. The paper’s final aim is to provide a working definition of an archipelagraphic text.

Parodic Archipelago: Friday, or, The Other Island, Vendredi ou la Vie sauvage and Foe

Abstract: This thesis examines the concept of parody through three novels, Friday or the Other Island, Vendredi ou la Vie Sauvage and Foe, rewriting Daniel Defoe’s Robinson Crusoe. I focus more specifically on the character of the island as the metaphor of the process of rewriting, and I argue that the multiple rewrites shape an archipelago. I apply Linda Hutcheon’s critical work A Theory of Parody to show how the island’s paradoxical aspect illustrates the parody’s paradoxical aspect: it is constrained – the island is isolated and the parody is forced to follow a literary format or pattern, but not

About Telling: Ghosts and Hauntings in Contemporary Drama and Poetry

Abstract: ........................................................................................................................................... ii Acknowledgments ......................................................................................................................... iii Table of Contents .......................................................................................................................... iv List of Figures ................................................................................................................................. vi Preface ............................................................................................................................................ vii 1 Introduction: Speaking of Ghosts ........................................................................................... 1 1.1 Purpose, Method, Definitions ......................................................................................... 1 1.2 Talking Ghosts: On Ghost Stories and Criticism ....................................................... 26 2 How to Tell A Ghost Story .................................................................................................... 45 2.1 Field Survey: A Brief History of Ghost Stories and the Theatre ............................... 45 2.2 Major Argument: About Telling Ghost Stories .......................................................... 52 2.3 Speaking of Ghosts: Conor McPherson’s The Weir ................................................... 61 2.4 An Irish Gothic: Marina Carr’s By the Bog of Cats... ................................................. 76 2.5 Staging South African Photography and the Ghost of Sizwe Banzi ......................... 90 2.6 A Haunting Machine: Theatrical Technologies and Samuel Beckett’s Shades ..... 108 2.7 Haunting Oceans, Mourning Languages: J.M. Synge and Derek Walcott ............ 135 3 Witness to Ghosts ................................................................................................................. 155 3.1 Field Survey: Transnational Poetics and the Globalgothic ..................................... 155 3.2 Major Argument: Voice, Medium, Rhythm, and the Poetry of Dead Metaphors162 3.3 Eavan Boland and the Haunted Chorus .................................................................... 187 3.4 Breyten Breytenbach and the Afrikaans Gothic ....................................................... 209 3.5 Nohow On from Here: Samuel Beckett’s Worsening Writings .............................. 235 3.6 Scholia on a Case Study: Imagining the Zong ........................................................... 259

Moments of Rupture: Narratological Readings of Contemporary German Literature

Abstract: Moments of Rupture: Narratological Readings of Contemporary German Literature

Towards an archipelagraphic literary methodology: reading the archipelago in Julieta Campos’ The Fear of Losing Eurydice

Abstract: Despite the recent archipelagraphic turn in island studies, there have been few literary studies of the archipelago. This paper has three aims. The first is to bring to light an archipelagraphic literary text that has not yet been explored in Island Studies Journal: Cuban writer Julieta Campos’s The Fear of Losing Eurydice. The second is to develop ‘archipelagraphy’ (a term coined by DeLoughrey) into a methodology for reading literary texts, putting it into practice through an analysis of The Fear of Losing Eurydice. This archipelagraphic analysis reveals that Campos’ text destabilizes the concept of the island as tabula rasa, an end-goal in a utopian quest. Instead utopia emerges as a call uttered by multiple voices across different times and spaces, resulting in the ‘archipelago of desire’ motif. This emancipatory cartography remaps western geographies of centre and periphery, instead stressing the connections between the Caribbean, Asia, Europe, and Africa. The paper’s final aim is to provide a working definition of an archipelagraphic text.

Parodic Archipelago: Friday, or, The Other Island, Vendredi ou la Vie sauvage and Foe

Abstract: This thesis examines the concept of parody through three novels, Friday or the Other Island, Vendredi ou la Vie Sauvage and Foe, rewriting Daniel Defoe’s Robinson Crusoe. I focus more specifically on the character of the island as the metaphor of the process of rewriting, and I argue that the multiple rewrites shape an archipelago. I apply Linda Hutcheon’s critical work A Theory of Parody to show how the island’s paradoxical aspect illustrates the parody’s paradoxical aspect: it is constrained – the island is isolated and the parody is forced to follow a literary format or pattern, but not