<abstract xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml">

<p>Guided by new materialist approaches to the memory of loss, this reading of Jackie Kay’s 1998 novel <italic>Trumpet</italic> surveys the affective permutations registered by different objects of remembrance in the Scottish-Nigerian writer’s fictional account of mourning. Exploring several material figurations of Black Scottishness in Kay’s writings, the essay derives its main theoretical framework from studies on blended subject-object ontologies, including Bill Brown’s critique of <italic>thingness</italic>, Maurizia Boscagli’s notion of the disruptive agency of <italic>stuff</italic>, and Mel Y Chen’s view of matter’s <italic>animacy</italic>, and discusses how the novel latches onto the role of things in anchoring memory and in helping humans work through bereavement.</p>
</abstract>

Guided by new materialist approaches to the memory of loss, this reading of Jackie Kay’s 1998 novel Trumpet surveys the affective permutations registered by different objects of remembrance in the Scottish-Nigerian writer’s fictional account of mourning. Exploring several material figurations of Black Scottishness in Kay’s writings, the essay derives its main theoretical framework from studies on blended subject-object ontologies, including Bill Brown’s critique of thingness, Maurizia Boscagli’s notion of the disruptive agency of stuff, and Mel Y Chen’s view of matter’s animacy, and discusses how the novel latches onto the role of things in anchoring memory and in helping humans work through bereavement.

“Daft naff Scottish things”: Stuff, Waste and Memory Objects in Jackie Kay’s <italic>Trumpet</italic>

American, British and Canadian Studies

This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.

“Daft naff Scottish things”: Stuff, Waste and Memory Objects in Jackie Kay’s 

Guided by new materialist approaches to the memory of loss, this reading of Jackie Kay’s 1998 novel Trumpet surveys the affective permutations registered by...

“Daft naff Scottish things”: Stuff, Waste and Memory Objects in Jackie Kay’s Trumpet

Article Category: Artikel

Published Online: Dec 30, 2021

Page range: 7 - 28

DOI: https://doi.org/10.2478/abcsj-2021-0015

Keywords
objects of memory, souvenirs, objects of mourning, thing-power, thing theory, thingness, animacy, stuff theory, Black Scottishness, prosopopoeia

© 2021 CARMEN BORBELY, published by Sciendo

This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.

“Daft naff Scottish things”: Stuff, Waste and Memory Objects in Jackie Kay’s Trumpet

Article Category: Artikel

Published Online: Dec 30, 2021

Page range: 7 - 28

DOI: https://doi.org/10.2478/abcsj-2021-0015

Keywordsobjects of memory, souvenirs, objects of mourning, thing-power, thing theory, thingness, animacy, stuff theory, Black Scottishness, prosopopoeia

© 2021 CARMEN BORBELY, published by Sciendo

This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.

Keywords
objects of memory, souvenirs, objects of mourning, thing-power, thing theory, thingness, animacy, stuff theory, Black Scottishness, prosopopoeia