Inventories, Catalogs, and Venuses : Excavating the Archive in Robin Coste Lewis’s Voyage of the Sable Venus
This article discusses archival and memorial work in the poetry collection Voyage of the Sable Venus by Robin Coste Lewis. I track Lewis’s experimental poetic strategies to confront and unsettle archival silences and erasures when it comes to Black female bodies in the archive of Transatlantic slave...
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| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
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Université du Sud Toulon-Var
2019-12-01
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| Series: | Babel: Littératures Plurielles |
| Subjects: | |
| Online Access: | http://journals.openedition.org/babel/7933 |
| _version_ | 1818470263211163648 |
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| author | Héloïse Thomas |
| author_facet | Héloïse Thomas |
| author_sort | Héloïse Thomas |
| collection | DOAJ |
| description | This article discusses archival and memorial work in the poetry collection Voyage of the Sable Venus by Robin Coste Lewis. I track Lewis’s experimental poetic strategies to confront and unsettle archival silences and erasures when it comes to Black female bodies in the archive of Transatlantic slavery. These strategies resonate with Christina Sharpe’s wake work and Saidiya Hartman’s discussion of an ethical engagement with the archive. By striving to individuate the figure of the Black woman in history, and by predicating memorial work on a collective engagement with the past, Lewis paves the way for a radically new articulation of Black womanhood that shatters and goes beyond the hold of the archive. |
| first_indexed | 2024-04-13T21:35:10Z |
| format | Article |
| id | doaj.art-44474c52f5e6410a937a84e2045554d7 |
| institution | Directory Open Access Journal |
| issn | 2743-2742 2263-4746 |
| language | English |
| last_indexed | 2024-04-13T21:35:10Z |
| publishDate | 2019-12-01 |
| publisher | Université du Sud Toulon-Var |
| record_format | Article |
| series | Babel: Littératures Plurielles |
| spelling | doaj.art-44474c52f5e6410a937a84e2045554d72022-12-22T02:29:01ZengUniversité du Sud Toulon-VarBabel: Littératures Plurielles2743-27422263-47462019-12-014017119610.4000/babel.7933Inventories, Catalogs, and Venuses : Excavating the Archive in Robin Coste Lewis’s Voyage of the Sable VenusHéloïse ThomasThis article discusses archival and memorial work in the poetry collection Voyage of the Sable Venus by Robin Coste Lewis. I track Lewis’s experimental poetic strategies to confront and unsettle archival silences and erasures when it comes to Black female bodies in the archive of Transatlantic slavery. These strategies resonate with Christina Sharpe’s wake work and Saidiya Hartman’s discussion of an ethical engagement with the archive. By striving to individuate the figure of the Black woman in history, and by predicating memorial work on a collective engagement with the past, Lewis paves the way for a radically new articulation of Black womanhood that shatters and goes beyond the hold of the archive.http://journals.openedition.org/babel/7933American poetry (21st century)Black poeticsarchiveexperimental poeticsmemoryslavery |
| spellingShingle | Héloïse Thomas Inventories, Catalogs, and Venuses : Excavating the Archive in Robin Coste Lewis’s Voyage of the Sable Venus Babel: Littératures Plurielles American poetry (21st century) Black poetics archive experimental poetics memory slavery |
| title | Inventories, Catalogs, and Venuses : Excavating the Archive in Robin Coste Lewis’s Voyage of the Sable Venus |
| title_full | Inventories, Catalogs, and Venuses : Excavating the Archive in Robin Coste Lewis’s Voyage of the Sable Venus |
| title_fullStr | Inventories, Catalogs, and Venuses : Excavating the Archive in Robin Coste Lewis’s Voyage of the Sable Venus |
| title_full_unstemmed | Inventories, Catalogs, and Venuses : Excavating the Archive in Robin Coste Lewis’s Voyage of the Sable Venus |
| title_short | Inventories, Catalogs, and Venuses : Excavating the Archive in Robin Coste Lewis’s Voyage of the Sable Venus |
| title_sort | inventories catalogs and venuses excavating the archive in robin coste lewis s voyage of the sable venus |
| topic | American poetry (21st century) Black poetics archive experimental poetics memory slavery |
| url | http://journals.openedition.org/babel/7933 |
| work_keys_str_mv | AT heloisethomas inventoriescatalogsandvenusesexcavatingthearchiveinrobincostelewissvoyageofthesablevenus |