Moving Bodies and Identities Across the Atlantic: The Subversive Narrative of the Slave Trade in Bernardine Evaristo’s Blonde Roots

Abstract

La qualità sovversiva della scrittura creativa di Bernardine Evaristo, tra le voci più interessanti del panorama letterario britannico contemporaneo, trova espressione dirompente nel suo quarto romanzo, Blonde Roots, pubblicato nel 2008 a valle delle celebrazioni per il bicentenario dell’abolizione del commercio degli schiavi. La spiazzante narrazione dello slave trade, che si caratterizza per un’inversione di ruoli lì dove sono gli Africani a ridurre in schiavitù gli Europei, è intesa a gettare una nuova luce su un capitolo infame della storia ‘gloriosa’ dell’Impero per sollecitare una consapevolezza e una conoscenza non solo degli orrori commessi nel passato, ma, altrettanto, delle loro drammatiche conseguenze nel presente, un’ingombrante eredità che segna pesantemente la società britannica contemporanea.

DOI: 10.17456/SIMPLE-239

Parole chiave: Evaristo, Blonde Roots, slave trade, neo-slave narratives, herstory.

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