Pulitano: Landscape, Memory and Survival in the Fiction of Edwidge Danticat

In Elvira Pulitano’s, “Landscape, Memory and Survival in the Fiction of Edwidge Danticat,” she analyzes several of Edwidge Danticat’s literary works such as: Brother, I am Dying, “Caroline’s Wedding,” “Children of the Sea,” The Farming of Bones, and “Nineteen Thirty-Seven” three of these works are from Danticat’s novel Krik? Krak! Out of these literary works, Pulitano focuses on three specific elements that she believes is important in Danticat's work, which is her description of landscape, the importance of memory, and the struggles her characters endure in order to survive, hence her title. Pulitano describes Danticat's purpose behind her works as "Addressing both Haitians at home and in the Diaspora, Danticat grounds her narratives on Haitian soil thus w/righting her island history against colonial and neocolonial discourse on islands," (Pulitano). Throughout this article, Pulitano talks about the Diaspora, which is the dispersion of people from their homeland and in this case, the dispersion of the Haitian people from their island. The reason Danticat sets her narratives on Haitian soil is because she wants to share what her people have truly endured. Pulitano uses the term "w/righting," quite interestingly. It implies that Danticat is not only writing stories of literary merit but she also wants to right the history of her home against the colonial or neocolonial control over her homeland. This article is another prime example of what we will be aiming to write for our genre analysis in class. Pulitano uses her sources effectively has a strong argument to defend which is something that I aim to do in my analysis at the end of the semester.