The Imagery of Sea and Land in Fred D’Aguiar’s Feeding the Ghosts


Term Paper (Advanced seminar), 2007

23 Pages, Grade: 1,0


Excerpt


Table of Contents

1. Introduction

2. Theory and Methodology

3. Main Part
3.1. The Dichotomy of Sea and Land – Multilayered and Mutually Influencing Metaphors
3.2. The Sea
3.2.1. Slavery as an Institution
3.2.2. Slavery’s Relation to British Society and Its Judiciary
3.2.3. The Sea as Enemy, Destroyer and Symbol of Death
3.3. The Land
3.3.1. Wood
3.3.2. Grain
3.4. The Imagery of Sea and Land in the Light of the Concept of Writing Back in Postcolonial Literature

4. Conclusion

5. Bibliography

6. Appendix

1. Introduction

Feeding the Ghosts is the third novel of British-Guyanese poet, novelist and playwright Fred D’Aguiar, who belongs to a group of West Indian novelists who directly dramatise the period of transatlantic slavery (cf. Savory 737, Pichler, 5; Schatteman, 234; Figueredo, 210 et seq.; James, 327; Low, 104; King, 818). The novel belongs to the genre of the Caribbean novels, and, as a historical fiction about the slave trade, provocatively combines historical and imaginative elements. Thus, it can be subsumed under the term “revisionist historical novel”, which, according to Ansgar Nünning, denotes novels that maintain a positive tension between their status as literature and their status as history (cf. Thieme, 1121; Pichler, 6, 11).

Feeding the Ghosts is based on the infamous “Zong Massacre” which took place in 1781. It was an incident in which 133 slaves were thrown overboard an English slave ship, leading to a civil action in the same year by the ship’s owners, who sued their insurers for compensation for the dead slaves. The publicity about the law suit and the concluding verdict, which confirmed the legal status of slaves as cargo, fostered abolitionist support and made them a landmark of the battle against British slave trade in the 18th century. Due to growing public indignation a parliamentary act was finally passed in 1790, which ruled out insurance claims resulting from slave mortality or the jettison of slaves on any account (cf. Low, 106 et seq.; Pichler, 6; Philp, 245; Baucom, 61 et seq., Frias 421, Schatteman, 234; James, 327).

In order to recreate the trauma of the Middle Passage D’ Aguiar’s fictionalised treatment of the Zong Massacre and of the subsequent trial mainly focuses on the reconstruction of the events from a slave girl’s point of view, (cf. Schatteman, 234, Phil, 245; Carr, Pichler, 11).

Since the most prominent feature of D’ Aguiar’s fiction is his poetic style, which is an object of acclaim as well as of critical reprimand (cf. Steward, 68; Figueredo, 211; Frias, 418; James, 327; Bovenschen; Low, 110; Schatteman, 234; Carr), the paper at hand chooses the novel’s imagery as its subject-matter and examines the principal dichotomy of sea and land. By elucidating their meanings the analysis will show that these images are multilayered metaphors which mutually influence each other, and explain other imagery they are connected to. Subsequently, sea and land will analysed in the light of the concept of writing back in Postcolonial Criticism in order to point out that they are part of a distinctive, reconciling approach, which aims at understanding history by personality and at recompense by remembrance.

2. Theory and Methodology

The first part of the analysis pursues a text-oriented approach by focussing on the content of the novel. Methodically, it will follow the example of New Criticism by conducting a close reading and a detailed textual analysis to illuminate the imagery’s meaning (cf. Nünning & Nünning, 34, 39; Cuddon, 544). The second part of the inquiry is dominated by the focus of Post-Colonial criticism, an innovative and comprehensive theoretical current, which integrates concepts and methods from cultural and media studies into the study of literature, in order to critically revise British colonialism and its legacy. (cf. Nünning & Nünning, 42, 169). The paper will relate sea and land to the concept of writing back in order to investigate how the imagery serves its purpose, and to point out the novel’s distinctive approach to this strategy.

In order to concentrate on the layers and nuances of meaning, and not to get lost in the classification of tropes, the term “imagery” is used in a broad sense covering images and figurative language use. Thus, it comprises metaphors, similes, synecdoche, onomatopoeia, metonymy and symbols (cf. Baldick, 121 et seq.; Morner & Rausch, 105; Wales, 201; Cuddon 413 et seq.).

3. Main Part

3.1. The Dichotomy of Sea and Land – Multilayered and Mutually Influencing Metaphors

Imagery is ubiquitous in Feeding the Ghosts. It is highly complex and involves a multitude of images which permeate the novel. These images create a chain of associations in order to add depth to meaning and to construct a “poetic meta-narrative”, by which events reoccur in different sections or spatial and temporal zones of the narration (cf. Low, 110).

The novel’s imagery is dominated by the basic dichotomy of sea and land (cf. Low, 110 et seq.) around which all other images can be grouped. Both have a broad spectrum of meanings and can be therefore called “layered metaphors” (cf. Savory, 736 et seq.; Low, 110). Sea and land not only mutually influence each other, but also preside over other imagery. Sea, for instance, sways the elements of wind and rain, rules over salt, and has fire on its side. Land on the other hand is the basis of wood and its grain, and the driving, determining force behind them. Illustration 1 in the appendix gives an overview on the novel’s imagery and shows the affiliation of the respective images to the spheres of sea and land. A line stands for dependence and a double-headed arrow stands for mutual influence.

3.2. The Sea

Already the first sentence in the prologue of the novel explicitly states that the sea is slavery (D’ Aguiar 1998, 3). The initial position of this equation signifies the central metaphoric meaning of the sea. Feeding the Ghost thereby takes up a common metaphor in West Indian Literature, which has been used for slavery and the Middle Passage before. (cf. Savory, 716; Hyppolite). Nevertheless, the novel elaborates on this basic meaning to point at various aspects of slavery.

3.2.1. Slavery as an Institution

The sea is personified and depicted as an independent, self-contained entity in order to emphasise slavery’s status as an institution (cf. Frias, 419). The picture of the sea as a “gigantic body of breathing sea water” (D’ Aguiar 1998, 179), which “breathes with a live of its own” (D’ Aguiar 1998, 188), emblemises slavery as a powerful economic institution of far-reaching influence and independence. The immense reach of its influence is alluded to when Mintah concludes that there can be no land left that is “not under rain or sea or flattened by wind” (cf. D’Aguiar 1998, 199). In this respect slavery is also portrayed as a diffuse, unseizable force, whose indirect effects go far beyond the official scope of the institution itself: “The sea was nowhere and everywhere.” (D’ Aguiar 1998, 26)

Slavery’s power over those who participate in it or are subordinated to it is furthermore exemplified by the sea’s impact on the Zong, making it sway, rock and lean (cf. D’ Aguiar 1998, 10, 22, 55, 69, 111, 116 et seq., 173, 196). Since one “must succumb to its swells, tumbles, pushes and pulls” (D’ Aguiar 1998, 3), the sea stands for a system which demands submission, obedience and a capacity for suffering from those who dwell within its domain. The ship’s “tilt” or “list to leeward” (cf. D’ Aguiar 1998, 111, 123, 132) symbolises the massive control that slavery exerts, but simultaneously hints at a general flaw of the system as a whole.

Mentioning the sea’s own “currents” (D’ Aguiar 1998, 3, 51, 214), the novel refers to economic interests behind the slave trade, as well to the specific rules, norms and practical logic which governs it. The currents also represent the dynamics the institution is subject to. The ocean as “a series of peaks and valleys” (D’ Aguiar 1998, 83) mirrors slavery as a transatlantic business characterised by danger and risk, as well as by uncertainty and unpredictability. The dangerous, chaotic and impervious character of the slave trade is also highlighted when the sea is portrayed as a jungle-like “forest”, in which one can be “tangled up” by its “branches, vines and leaves” (cf. D’ Aguiar 1998, 52).

The “smooth surface” (D’ Aguiar 1998, 3) and the “good side” of the sea, which is “tamed, untroubled, recumbent” (D’ Aguiar 1998, 52), suggests that the slave trade appears, for those who are not involved in it, as an ordinary and respectable business, which fosters the prosperity of participating nations. On the other hand the novel simultaneously confronts the reader with the sea’s “other side, the one at war with all the world” (D’ Aguiar 1998, 52), in order to emphasize that war, oppression, destruction and death are the other side of the coin of this economic institution.

The sea is furthermore depicted as a possessive element, which “claims” slaves (cf. D’ Aguiar 1998, 117) in order to hint at the legalised commercial interests that dominate the slave trade. These interests find their metaphorical expression in the image of salt (cf. D’ Aguiar 1998, 3, 9, 21, 78, 117, 120, 190, 200, 214) which symbolises property and possession, as well as greed for profit. On the bodies of the slaves salt marks them as chattel (cf. D’ Aguiar 1998, 190, 200). Washing the wounds of the jettisoned slaves in order to make them the property of the sea (D’ Aguiar 1998, 3), it represents profiteers, who, driven by their want for gain, cover up the bloody reality of the business, and thereby serve and back the system of slavery as a whole. Stating that “Salt gives the sea the texture of fabric, something thick and close-knitted, [...]” (D’ Aguiar 1998, 3), the novel furthermore deems financial interests the driving and determining force behind the structure and organisation of the trade. They are also regarded the main criterion for any evaluation of an action or transaction, cf. “captain worth his salt” (D’ Aguiar 1998, 163). The “salted light”, which irritates the eyes and narrows the vision (D’ Aguiar 1998, 120), signifies that the excessively profit-oriented economic perspective is a kind of unnatural and hurtful myopia.

Salt also appears as an ingredient of food and thereby hints at the ways how the mercantile logic of slavery was internalised by slavers and slaves. Lord Chief Justice Mansfield’s hunger and his inclination to quickly pronounce a judgement alludes to the beneficiaries of the slave trade and mirrors their greed, which is paramount to aspects of humanity. His appetite for a “cured pheasant” (D’ Aguiar 1998, 138 et seq.) or “pleasant pheasant”, (D’ Aguiar 1998, 148, 171) along with his gastric pyrosis caused by the “distasteful” details of the case (cf. D’ Aguiar 1998, 138, 171), symbolises that profiteers are used to capitalise on the inhuman trade, but try to shut their eyes to the brutal reality of the business in an attempt to repress it. Salt is also part of the porridge that is fed to the slaves (cf. D’ Aguiar 1998, 78, 43, 197). Since this food is their only nourishment, salt can be interpreted as a symbol of the total economic reification, which has to be internalised by the slaves in order so stay alive (also cf. D’ Aguiar 1998, 190 for the tendency of salt to get inside the body).

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Details

Title
The Imagery of Sea and Land in Fred D’Aguiar’s Feeding the Ghosts
College
University of Hannover  (Englisches Seminar)
Course
HS Caribbean Literature and Culture
Grade
1,0
Author
Year
2007
Pages
23
Catalog Number
V120291
ISBN (eBook)
9783640241415
ISBN (Book)
9783640245130
File size
572 KB
Language
English
Keywords
Imagery, Land, Fred, D’Aguiar’s, Feeding, Ghosts, Caribbean, Literature, Culture
Quote paper
Dipl.Jurist Marco Sievers (Author), 2007, The Imagery of Sea and Land in Fred D’Aguiar’s Feeding the Ghosts , Munich, GRIN Verlag, https://www.grin.com/document/120291

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