Champion, Giulia (2020) The empire bites back : literary cannibalism in the extractiono(s)cene. PhD thesis, University of Warwick.

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Abstract

Our current climate crisis is also a broader crisis of social inequality. It stems from material histories and developments, which themselves find their origins in the development of the capitalist system through colonial expansion. My doctoral research seeks to find ways to identify how these issues are exposed in specific cultural productions emerging from former colonies. This thesis takes the form of a comparative study focusing on works produced in countries on the American and African continents. This is because the transatlantic connections between them, their shared history of colonialism and (neo-)imperialism, socio-economic, environmental and political developments, and their shared linguistic backgrounds, provide a basis on which to build a new literary methodological approach. In my project, I weave together rewriting practices and the cannibalism metaphor and propose ‘literary cannibalism’ as a new way of grasping the objective thrust of these literary rewritings.

Cannibalism is a fantasy projection erected on the prior conception of peoples from former colonies as savages. This thesis proposes that it would make better sense to describe as ‘cannibalistic’ the ‘proto-capitalist’ impulse behind mercantilism and colonial ventures, still present in contemporary neo-imperial practices of extractivism. I establish literary cannibalism as a decolonial mode of writing. It identifies how rewriting the ‘western literary canon’ illuminates the history of extractive capitalism. My thesis is divided into two sections. Part one focuses on the development of this new methodological approach by engaging primarily with theories emerging from former colonies. Part two undertakes a systematic analysis of case studies using this methodology. I analyse a wide corpus of literary texts chosen from a space that I call the ‘extractiono(s)cene’, which traces the movements of the Atlantic Trade route and its connections. These literary texts are all examined in their original contexts and languages: English, French, Spanish and Portuguese.

Item Type:	Thesis or Dissertation (PhD)
Subjects:	G Geography. Anthropology. Recreation > GN Anthropology J Political Science > JV Colonies and colonization. Emigration and immigration. International migration P Language and Literature > PN Literature (General)
Library of Congress Subject Headings (LCSH):	Cannibalism in literature, Decolonization in literature, Postcolonialism, Colonies in literature
Official Date:	April 2020
Dates:	Date Event April 2020 UNSPECIFIED
Institution:	University of Warwick
Theses Department:	Department of English and Comparative Literary Studies
Thesis Type:	PhD
Publication Status:	Unpublished
Supervisor(s)/Advisor:	Lazarus, Neil, 1953- ; Viala, Fabienne
Sponsors:	University of Warwick. Doctoral College ; BFWG Charitable Foundation
Format of File:	pdf
Extent:	222 leaves : illustrations (some colour)
Language:	eng

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