The Lived and Learned Narratives of the Past: Memory in Andrea Levy’s The Long Song

Deniz Kırpıklı Kırdım

Makale detayları

The Lived and Learned Narratives of the Past: Memory in Andrea Levy’s The Long Song

Yazarlar:

Deniz Kırpıklı Kırdım

Yayıncı:

Manisa Celal Bayar University

Ana Başlıklar:

İngiliz ve İrlanda Dili | Edebiyatı ve Kültürü

Dergi:

Manisa Celal Bayar Üniversitesi Sosyal Bilimler Dergisi Vol.23 Issue 2, pp.355-367

Belge Tipi:

Makale

Yayın Tarihi:

6/2025

Belge Dili:

İngilizce

Document ID (Org No.):

2001352508

pISSN:

1304-4796

Anahtar kelimeler:

Özet:

 In his Les Cadres Sociaux de la Mémoire 1925 Maurice Halbwachs makes a simple distinction between collective memory and history: while memory is the lived history, history is the learned version of the past. Andrea Levys last novel The Long Song 2010 revisits the lived history of the Afro-Caribbean community that is sidelined in the learned history. Told by a former slave named July, the novel is set in early 19th-century Jamaica in the years before and after the abolition of slavery. Despite her editor-son Thomass questioning and requests for an account of key historical events, Julys story is an attempt to unveil what is left unsaid about plantation life in conventional historiography. Drawing on Maurice Halbwachss distinction between history and memory, this paper aims to examine how the novel foregrounds the memory of the Afro-Caribbean community and reconstructs the past in multi-faceted versions to challenge the received version of the past in Western historiography.

 In his Les Cadres Sociaux de la Mémoire 1925 Maurice Halbwachs makes a simple distinction between collective memory and history: while memory is the lived history, history is the learned version of the past. Andrea Levys last novel The Long Song 2010 revisits the lived history of the Afro-Caribbean community that is sidelined in the learned history. Told by a former slave named July, the novel is set in early 19th-century Jamaica in the years before and after the abolition of slavery. Despite her editor-son Thomass questioning and requests for an account of key historical events, Julys story is an attempt to unveil what is left unsaid about plantation life in conventional historiography. Drawing on Maurice Halbwachss distinction between history and memory, this paper aims to examine how the novel foregrounds the memory of the Afro-Caribbean community and reconstructs the past in multi-faceted versions to challenge the received version of the past in Western historiography.

 In his Les Cadres Sociaux de la Mémoire 1925 Maurice Halbwachs makes a simple distinction between collective memory and history: while memory is the lived history, history is the learned version of the past. Andrea Levys last novel The Long Song 2010 revisits the lived history of the Afro-Caribbean community that is sidelined in the learned history. Told by a former slave named July, the novel is set in early 19th-century Jamaica in the years before and after the abolition of slavery. Despite her editor-son Thomass questioning and requests for an account of key historical events, Julys story is an attempt to unveil what is left unsaid about plantation life in conventional historiography. Drawing on Maurice Halbwachss distinction between history and memory, this paper aims to examine how the novel foregrounds the memory of the Afro-Caribbean community and reconstructs the past in multi-faceted versions to challenge the received version of the past in Western historiography.

 Maurice Halbwachs Les Cadres Sociaux de la Mémoire 1925 adlı eserinde kolektif bellek ile tarih arasında basit bir ayrım yapar: bellek yaşanmış tarihtir, tarih ise geçmişin öğrenilmiş versiyonudur. Andrea Levynin son romanı The Long Song 2010, Afro-Karayip toplumunun öğrenilen tarih içinde bir kenara itilen yaşanmış tarihini yeniden ele alıyor. July adlı özgürlüğüne kavuşmuş bir köle tarafından anlatılan roman, 19. yüzyılın başlarında Jamaikada, köleliğin kaldırılmasından önceki ve sonraki yıllarda geçiyor. Editör oğlu Thomasın sorgulamalarına ve önemli tarihsel olayları anlatma taleplerine rağmen Julynin hikayesi, geleneksel tarih yazımında plantasyon yaşamı hakkında söylenmemiş olanları ortaya çıkarma girişimidir. Maurice Halbwachsın tarih ve bellek arasındaki ayrımından yola çıkan bu makale, romanın Afro-Karayip toplumunun belleğini nasıl ön plana çıkardığını ve Batı tarih yazımında geçmişin kabul edilen versiyonuna meydan okumak için geçmişi çok yönlü versiyonlarla nasıl yeniden inşa ettiğini incelemeyi amaçlamaktadır.

Makale detayları

The Lived and Learned Narratives of the Past: Memory in Andrea Levy’s The Long Song

Yazarlar:

Deniz Kırpıklı Kırdım

Yayıncı:

Manisa Celal Bayar University

Ana Başlıklar:

İngiliz ve İrlanda Dili | Edebiyatı ve Kültürü

Dergi:

Manisa Celal Bayar Üniversitesi Sosyal Bilimler Dergisi Vol.23 Issue 2, pp.355-367

Belge Tipi:

Makale

Yayın Tarihi:

6/2025

Belge Dili:

İngilizce

Document ID (Org No.):

2001352508

pISSN:

1304-4796

Memory

Andrea Levy

History

Halbwachs

SlaveryBellek

Andrea Levy

Tarih

Halbwachs

Kölelik

Sayı

Makale detayları

Yazarlar: Deniz Kırpıklı Kırdım

Yayıncı: Manisa Celal Bayar University

Ana Başlıklar: İngiliz ve İrlanda Dili | Edebiyatı ve Kültürü

Dergi: Manisa Celal Bayar Üniversitesi Sosyal Bilimler Dergisi Vol.23 Issue 2, pp.355-367

Belge Tipi: Makale

Yayın Tarihi: 6/2025

Belge Dili: İngilizce

Document ID (Org No.): 2001352508

pISSN: 1304-4796

Sayı

Yazarlar:

Deniz Kırpıklı Kırdım

Yayıncı:

Manisa Celal Bayar University

Ana Başlıklar:

İngiliz ve İrlanda Dili | Edebiyatı ve Kültürü

Dergi:

Manisa Celal Bayar Üniversitesi Sosyal Bilimler Dergisi Vol.23 Issue 2, pp.355-367

Belge Tipi:

Makale

Yayın Tarihi:

6/2025

Belge Dili:

İngilizce

Document ID (Org No.):

2001352508

pISSN:

1304-4796