Caryl Phillips and the Rhizomorphous Gaze: A Geophilosophical Reading of Crossing the River

I. Murat Öner (1)

1 International Burch University [Sarajevo]

Phillips's narratives are generally known for their fragmentation, ambiguity, displaced characters, complex geographical and social passages, and intertextual allusions. Crossing the River similarly embodies fragmentation in its substance and narrative form( s ), and it also features transgressors and travelers who geographically and socially cross borders and undergo deep transformations. Despite the presence of this ambivalence, the concept of « rhizomorphous gaze » which appears in the title of this paper may be considered as relevant to the analysis of such heterogeneous spatiotemporality and of the dense modus operandi of Caryl Phillips whose primary concern, geocritically speaking, has been the nonequilibrium of deterritorialization. This paper also argues that Phillipsian fragmentation is « a rhizomatic patchwork, » and geographical and social passages are merely « smoothing » movements from « striations » of « the state apparatus, » and displaced characters tum into border-crossing « nomads » for whom displacement is an « intermezzo » in a geophilosophical reading.

Mots clés: Caryl Phillips; Crossing the River; geocriticism; geophilosophy; nomads; nonequilibrium of deterritorialization; rhizomes; rhizomatic narratives -rhizomorphous gaze

Domaines: Littératures

I. Murat Öner. Caryl Phillips and the Rhizomorphous Gaze: A Geophilosophical Reading of Crossing the River. Cycnos, 2016, Traversée d'une oeuvre : Crossing the River de Caryl Phillips, 32 (1), pp.207-218. ⟨hal-03148891⟩