Metaphor and the Slave Tradeprovides compelling evidence of the hidden but unmistakable traces of the transatlantic slave trade that persist in West African discourse. Through an examination of metaphors that describe the trauma, loss, and suffering associated with the commerce in human lives, this book shows how the horrors of slavery are communicated from generation to generation.
Laura T. Murphy’s insightful new readings of canonical West African fiction, autobiography, drama, and poetry explore the relationship between memory and metaphor and emphasize how repressed or otherwise marginalized memories can be transmitted through images, tropes, rumors, and fears. By analyzing the unique codes through which West Africans have represented the slave trade, this work foregrounds African literary contributions to Black Atlantic discourse and draws attention to the archive that metaphor unlocks for scholars of all disciplines and fields of study.
Through an examination of metaphors that describe the trauma, loss, and suffering associated with the the transatlantic slave trade,Metaphor and the Slave Tradeshows how the horrors of slavery are communicated from generation to generation and persist in West African discourse.
“Metaphor and the Slave Tradeis a book that is long overdue in African literary studies. Using many of the literary canon’s most read texts, the author has presented a new perspective in the reading of these and other texts of African literature, opening the way forward for readers to nuance each and every African text for the subtle metaphors that point to a people’s memory of the slave trade.”—African Studies Quarterly
“Original and challenging…(Murphy) argues that while it has been acknowledged that the oral tradition registers the traumatic effect of the slave trade, scholars have been slow to recognize its deep imprint on thl“7
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