Zee Edgell's novel Time and the River (2007) opens narrative space
for formerly marginalized voices and exposes the problems ingrained in
the nationalist meta-narrative that the novel strives to counter. This
article will explore the paradigm of double traumatization of the
charactersLeah Lawson and Will McGilvreyand its consequences for
Belizean civil society and explore Edgell's representation of trauma based
on race politics in her latest novel. The ethnic designations and
divisions in Spanish controlled but British settled Honduras are at the core
of this narrative's focus on the problematic nature of the transference
of political power in Belize, for it implicates Creoles in collaboration
with the British mahogany merchants as part of the double
traumatization inflicted upon African slaves and their descendants. The narratives
of Leah Lawson and Nzimbe, called "Will McGilvrey" by his owner,
provide testimonio to the complexities of the quasi-colonial British legacy that
is the first assault on Nzimbe/Will, the imported African slave, while
Leah's Creole, and thus inculturated, perspective leads to a repeated
betrayal of her fellow slaves. Thus, this novel opens spaces for the
polyvocal narrative of the enslaved, and the exploration of race politics and
double traumatization and its implications in post-colonial Belize.
The relevance of politics of race, trauma theory and the decline of
postcolonial Belizean nationalism to Zee Edgell's novel Time and the
River (2007) opens narrative space for formerly marginalized voices
and exposes the problems ingrained in the nationalist meta-narrative that the
novel strives to counter. Thus, this article
explores the paradigm of double traumatization of characters—Leah Lawson and Nzimbe/Will
McGilvrey—and its consequences for Belizean civil society, and these will authenticate and
provide support for Edgell's representation of trauma via the politics of race in her
latest novel. |
