Michelle Cliff's Novels

At the center of Jamaican-born Michelle Cliff's novels is the exploration of the interplay between memory and history. Noraida Agosto examines Cliff's representation of memory as the part of history that has been suppressed because of its revolutionary potential. Memories of slave rebellions, for instance, were erased through omission from official historical accounts to discourage resistance among slaves. Cliff's novels are an attempt to recover these erased memories, which could generate resistance to modern oppressions. This recovery of devalued memories also entails a validation of non-elite beliefs, languages, and art forms in order to debunk dominant practices.

Autorentext

The Author: Noraida Agosto, a native of Puerto Rico, teaches at the University of Puerto Rico. She obtained her Ph.D. in African American and Caribbean Literature at Kent State University. She lives in San Juan with her teenage twin daughters, Monica and Rebeca.