Silences Too Horrific to Disturb
Writing Sexual Histories in Edwidge Danticat's Breath, Eyes, Memory
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 9250221 |
|---|---|
| Authors | Donette Francis (Binghamton University, corresponding author), Donette A Francis |
| Year | 2004 |
| Volume | 35 |
| Issue | 2 |
| Pages | 75-90 |
| Publication date | 2004-06-01 |
| Peer Reviewed | Yes |
| Open Access | No |
| Type | ARTICLE |
| Venue | Research in African Literatures (JOURNAL) |
| Journal identifiers | ISSN: 0034-5210 • E-ISSN: 1527-2044 |
| Publisher | Indiana University Press (PUBLISHER • US) |
| DOI | 10.2979/ral.2004.35.2.75 |
| OpenAlex | W1975677934 |
| Language | EN |
| Citations received | 9 |
| References cited | 9 |
Women's stories of sexual abuse are often subordinated to larger political narratives of the nation-state, and this is especially true of Haiti, where the nation's political upheavals, poverty, and refugees overwhelm the global imagination. This essay reads Edwidge Danticat's Breath, Eyes, Memory as a fictional counternarrative that chronicles how empires, the postcolonial state, and the patriarchal family have abused, exposed, and compromised the sexed bodies of Caribbean women and girls. By inscribing these unofficial memories into the historical narrative of the Haitian nation-state, Danticat counters the systemic violence of erasure deployed by various cultural apparatuses that aim to conceal violence against women. In so doing, she makes explicit the political implications of these occurrences for women's experiences of citizenship
Art · Citizenship · Criminology · Literature · Narrative · Political science · Politics · Poverty · Refugee · Sexual violence · Sociology · State (computer science) · Caribbean and African Literature and Culture · Caribbean history, culture, and politics · Colonialism, slavery, and trade · Gender Studies · History · Law
Unsilencing Défilés Daughters
The Unmaking of the World
Restoring Haitian Women's Voices and Verbalizing Sexual Trauma in Breath, Eyes, Memory
M/othering the Nation
Trauma in Paradise
Annual Bibliography of Works about Life Writing, 2004-2005
Mothering Across Borders
Desiring Diaspora
Reading Girlhood under the Tongue
| Unique citing works | 9 |
|---|---|
| Citations per year | 0,43 |
| Citation span | 2005 - 2016 (12) |
| Citation velocity | historical |
| Highly cited | No |
| Citation types | Neutral: 3 |