A literary volcano

Written by Laëtitia Saint-Loubert for Wasafiri on Friday, May 25th, 2018

Madness is a recurring motif in McCallum’s collection of poems, as its title indicates. When associated with the ‘anathematized race’ of mixed-race women, madness becomes enmeshed with the politics of (in)visibility and (un)belonging. As the persona of the poem ‘Race’ declares: ‘You are the original incognito/Transparent, all things shine through you’. 

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Literary volcanoes ... continue to erupt from the Caribbean and elsewhere, just as the sound of bleating voices continues to be heard in an attempt to come to terms with injustice, prejudice and memory.