Stephanie Pocock Boeninger - Literary Drowning

Contents

Literary Drowning

Irish Studies
Kathleen Costello-Sullivan, Series Editor

Select Titles in Irish Studies

Fine Meshwork: Philip Roth, Edna OBrien, and Jewish-Irish Literature

Dan OBrien

Irish Questions and Jewish Questions: Crossovers in Culture

Aidan Beatty and Dan OBrien, eds.

J. M. Synge and Travel Writing of the Irish Revival

Giulia Bruna

Kate OBrien and Spanish Literary Culture

Jane Davison

The Rebels and Other Short Fiction

Richard Power; James MacKillop, ed.

Respectability and Reform: Irish American Womens Activism, 18801920

Tara M. McCarthy

Science, Technology, and Irish Modernism

Kathryn Conrad, Ciln Parsons, and Julie McCormick Weng, eds.

Trauma and Recovery in the Twenty-First-Century Irish Novel

Kathleen Costello-Sullivan

For a full list of titles in this series,
visit https://press.syr.edu/supressbook-series/irish-studies/.

Some material in reprinted with permission from I Have Become the Seas Craft: Authorial Subjectivity in Derek Walcotts Omeros and David Dabydeens Turner in Contemporary Literature, vol. 52, no. 3, 2011, pp 24292.

Reprinted by permission of Farrar, Straus and Giroux ():

Excerpts from The Sea at Dauphin and What the Twilight Says: An Overture, from Dream on Monkey Mountain by Derek Walcott. Copyright 1970 by Derek Walcott. Excerpts from Omeros by Derek Walcott. Copyright 1990 by Derek Walcott. Excerpts from The Sea Is History from Selected Poems by Derek Walcott, edited by Edward Baugh. Copyright 2007 by Derek Walcott.

Copyright 2020 by Syracuse University Press

Syracuse, New York 13244-5290

All Rights Reserved

First Edition 2020

20 21 22 23 24 25 6 5 4 3 2 1

The paper used in this publication meets the minimum requirements of the American National Standard for Information SciencesPermanence of Paper for Printed Library Materials, ANSI Z39.48-1992.

For a listing of books published and distributed by Syracuse University Press, visit https://press.syr.edu.

ISBN: 978-0-8156-3672-4 (hardcover)

978-0-8156-3682-3 (paperback)

978-0-8156-5497-1 (e-book)

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Names: Boeninger, Stephanie Pocock, author.

Title: Literary drowning : postcolonial memory in Irish and Caribbean writing / Stephanie Pocock Boeninger.

Description: First edition. | Syracuse : Syracuse University Press, 2020. | Series: Irish studies | Includes bibliographical references and index. | Summary: Literary Drowning is the first book-length study of drowning in literature. It examines depictions of the drowned body in Irish and Caribbean postcolonial literature, uncovering a complex transatlantic conversation that re-evaluates memory, forgetfulness, and the role that each plays in the construction of the postcolonial subject and nation Provided by publisher.

Identifiers: LCCN 2020004823 (print) | LCCN 2020004824 (ebook) | ISBN 9780815636724 (hardcover) | ISBN 9780815636823 (paperback) | ISBN 9780815654971 (ebook)

Subjects: LCSH: Drowning victims in literature. | English literatureIrish authorsHistory and criticism. | Sea in literature. | Memory in literature. | Postcolonialism in literature. | English literature20th centuryHistory and criticism. | Caribbean literature (English)History and criticism. | English literatureCaribbean authorsHistory and criticism.

Classification: LCC PR8723.D76 B64 2020 (print) | LCC PR8723.D76 (ebook) | DDC 820.9/9415dc23

LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2020004823

LC ebook record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2020004824

Manufactured in the United States of America

Roll on, thou deep and dark blue Oceanroll!
Ten thousand fleets sweep over thee in vain;
Man marks the earth with ruinhis control
Stops with the shore;upon the watery plain
The wrecks are all thy deed, nor doth remain
A shadow of mans ravage, save his own,
When for a moment, like a drop of rain,
He sinks into thy depths with bubbling groan,
Without a grave, unknelld, uncoffind and unknown.

Lord Byron, Childe Harolds Pilgrimage

Contents

Acknowledgments

T his book has been a long time coming and gratitude is due to more people than I will remember to name here. Susan Cannon Harris has seen this project through from its earliest stages and her wisdom, support, generosity, and good humor have continued unflaggingly in the years since I left her classroom. Special thanks are also due to Richard Rankin Russell, whose love for Irish literature and his students first drew me to the field, and in whose classes I first started to notice the drowned body. Many other mentors have read and given feedback on this book, including Maud Ellmann, Luke Gibbons, Romana Huk, and P. J. Mathews.

I am grateful to Providence College for the sabbatical that allowed me to put the finishing touches on this book. My colleagues at Providence College have created an environment in which it is a pleasure to teach and to work. Special thanks are due to Alex Moffett and Bill Hogan for reading and commenting on portions of this work. Thanks also to Bruce Graver and Peggy Reid for their support and hard work as department chairs. I have loved working alongside Licia Carlson and Margaret Manchester, who have taught me more than I can quantify here. The members of the Best Committee Ever (you know who you are) gave invaluable advice on the book proposal process, while also providing solidarity, laughter, and a sense of community. My students have been and remain a source of inspiration, challenging me to see these texts from new perspectives.

Part of are adapted from an article that first appeared in Contemporary Literature in 2011. My thanks go to the University of Wisconsin Press for their permission to reprint that work. Thanks also to David Dabydeen for his generous personal response to my request for permission to quote from Turner. I am grateful to the readers for Syracuse University Press for their encouragement and helpful suggestions. Special thanks to Michael Malouf for his careful reading and trenchant criticism of this book; engaging with his critique made this book much stronger. Most of all, I thank Deborah Manion at Syracuse University Press for her enthusiastic support of my book and her patience with my questions about the publishing process. Id like also to thank my copyeditor, Jessica LeTourneur Bax, whose attention to detail prevented many errors. Any that remain are my own.

There are people who may never read this book who have nonetheless been vital to its creation. The loving support of my parents and siblings has been a constant source of encouragement. While the birth and infancy of my two sons, Samuel and Micah, delayed the progress of this book considerably, they are the best distraction anyone could hope for and have enhanced my life immeasurably. My deepest gratitude is always due to my husband and best friend, Brian, for the love, laughter, and intellectual honesty that saw me through this decade-long process.

Literary Drowning

Introduction

Burial at Sea

O n May 1, 2011, after a ten-year pursuit, US Navy SEALs invaded the Pakistan compound where the Al-Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden, the architect of the September 11, 2001, attacks, was hiding. They shot and killed the terrorist leader and, within hours, before President Barack Obamas late-night announcement to the world, bin Ladens body had been taken aboard the USS