Description
'Atlantic Archipelagos: Scotland, Ireland, Britain and the Caribbean'. This paper brings together the re-conceptualisation of ‘NOWA’- the ‘North Western Atlantic Archipelago’ with the modern recovery of the memory of Atlantic slavery. The archipelagic theoretical structure moves away from the assumptions built into the ‘British Isles and Ireland’ that tends towards an insular concept of a centri-petal ‘island nation’ that remains splendid in its isolation. The Caribbean becomes significant for two reasons here. Firstly I argue that the discussion of cultural fusion articulated in Caribbean theories of creolisation provide a suggestive model for the future of NOWA. Cultural interaction between and within the nations that make up the archipelago may be read as producing a ‘Creative Schizophrenia’ (Wilson Harris) without ignoring unequal power relations. It is pertinent to consider the areas of overlap and difference between the positions of Scotland and Ireland within the archipelago in a wider Atlantic context. Secondly, the concept of NOWA opens up to the oceanic space where the archipelago of the Caribbean holds significance for current national narratives of Scotland and Ireland. I develop the suggestion that the Caribbean represents a forgotten lieu de mémoire (Pierre Nora) where Scotland and Ireland might reconsider their national narratives that continue to evade issues of empire, race and slavery.| Period | 24 Oct 2013 |
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| Event type | Conference |
| Location | Dublin, IrelandShow on map |
| Degree of Recognition | International |