Eckstein (English, U. of T羹bingen) examines literature of the Atlantic slave trade as it relates to memory, and how that intersection affects the politics of discomfort. He applies what he
terms "a poetics of mnemonic strategy," exploring trauma and testimony and the recourse to palimpsests in an extended essay, then analyzes Phillips's Cambridge as a case of the art of the
montage and the empowering of culture, Dabydeen's A Hoarlot's Progress as the art of ekphrasis and the empowering of the individual, and Toni Morrison's Beloved as the art of musicalization and
the empowering of the collective. The result is a very concise treatment of how memory is recreated or newly created by those whose memories of events are largely cultural rather than part of
their own living experience, but powerful and life-directing nevertheless within the contexts of identity. Annotation 穢2006 Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com)
