Abstract
This thesis proposes to read Caryl Phillips’s The Atlantic Sound (2000) in light of sound and its transition. The Atlantic Sound has been related to black diaspora, especially in the framework of Paul Gilroy’s The Black Atlantic (1993). As a result, critics often silence the role of sound with sole attention to the politics of belonging. It is ironic that these critics overlook the role of sound while Paul Gilroy highlights it in The Black Atlantic. This thesis suggests that it is misleading for critics merely to highlight the politics of belonging. I propose to use sound as a key to decode, comprehend or appreciate The Atlantic Sound, since its title highlights the “sound” of the Atlantic.Chapter One attempts to place Caryl Phillips in terms of his writing career. The chapter discusses why Caryl Phillips should be significant in our study and suggests placing Caryl Phillips as a black Atlantic writer. Chapter Two considers the sound of pan-African festivals. I trace the sound of Panafest to be strategically performed active in relation to the African homeland. Secondly, I investigate the tunes of these festivals from the feature of their performance. Chapter Three highlights the narrative voice as a figurative device of the Atlantic in each episode. In contrast to the tunes of pan-African festivals, those mnemonic voices are more historically illuminative and locally particular. More importantly, these narrative voices re-negotiate the standard tunes of pan-African festivals and provide a diasporic intimacy to re-map the transatlantic community of black diaspora. The last chapter concludes by offering further perspective on black diasporas. I find the sound of the ship to be related to black Atlantic, framing it with depth, highlighting its engagement with the Burmese labors.