The British slave trade and public memory / Elizabeth Kowaleski Wallace.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Kowaleski-Wallace, Elizabeth, 1954- author.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Slave trade--Great Britain--History--Public opinion.

Slave trade.

Public opinion--Great Britain.

Public opinion.

Slave trade in literature.

Slavery in literature.

Physical Description:

1 online resource (263 pages) : illustrations

Place of Publication:

New York : Columbia University Press, 2006.

Language Note:

English

Summary:

How does a contemporary society restore to its public memory a momentous event like its own participation in transatlantic slavery? What are the stakes of once more restoring the slave trade to public memory? What can be learned from this history? Elizabeth Kowaleski Wallace explores these questions in her study of depictions and remembrances of British involvement in the slave trade. Skillfully incorporating a range of material, Wallace discusses and analyzes how museum exhibits, novels, television shows, movies, and a play created and produced in Britain from 1990 to 2000 grappled with the subject of slavery. Topics discussed include a walking tour in the former slave-trading port of Bristol; novels by Caryl Phillips and Barry Unsworth; a television adaptation of Jane Austen's Mansfield Park; and a revival of Aphra Behn's Oroonoko for the Royal Shakespeare Company. In each case, Wallace reveals how these works and performances illuminate and obscure the history of the slave trade and its legacy. While Wallace focuses on Britain, her work also speaks to questions of how the United States and other nations remember inglorious chapters from their past.

Contents:

Frontmatter

Contents

List of Illustrations

Preface

Introduction. Millennial Reckonings

1. Commemorating the Transatlantic Slave Trade in Liverpool and Bristol

2. Fictionalizing Slavery in the United Kingdom, 1990-2000

3. Seeing Slavery and the Slave Trade

4. Transnationalism and Performance in 'Biyi Bandele's Oroonoko

Conclusion

Notes

Index

Notes:

Includes index.

Description based on print version record.

ISBN:

9780231137157

023113715X

9780231510318

0231510314

OCLC:

979909838