Description
Book SynopsisThe first book of its kind,
Literary Drowning explores depictions of the drowned body in twentieth-century Irish and Caribbean postcolonial literature, uncovering a complex transatlantic conversation that reconsiders memory, forgetfulness, and the role that each plays in the making of the postcolonial subject and nation.
Trade ReviewLiterary Drownings is both a triumph of original scholarship and a compelling read. Boeninger's penetrating critical vision produces a wealth of insights into the power and purchase of the trope of the drowning body on the literary imagination. This book resonates uncannily today when shocking images of drowned bodies regularly confront us as stark reminders of the geopolitical inequalities of our own time. In a specific sense, this book offers insights through careful readings of drowning and memory in Synge, Walcott, Dabydeen, and Carr; yet more generally, it is a perceptive transatlantic meditation on gender, creativity, and nationalism.
Literary Drowning is a remarkable achievement which demonstrates the revelatory power of comparativism at its best. Boeninger creates a rich theoretical, historical, and folkloric context for her investigations of major works by J. M. Synge, Derek Walcott, David Dabydeen, and Marina Carr.
