VOL. 60, BOOK 1, PART B, 2022, pp. 226 – 235 Full text (En)

Author: Bozhidara Boneva-Kamenova

Affiliation: Paisii Hilendarski University of Plovdiv

Abstract

The African American writer Jesmyn Ward has been very successful in recent years, both in terms of critical reception and audience interest. Her most recent novel, Sing, Unburied, Sing (2017), manages to reconcile past and present while focusing on a family that is closely associated with Parchman prison. The
following examination focuses on the search for home in a state of confinement through the experiences of two characters, River and Richie, more specifically on the beginning of their captivity, participation in the trustee system and life outside the penitentiary. The aim of the examination is to see to what extent
prison can adopt the function of an ‘undesired’ home.

Key words: belonging, slavery, prison system, Jesmyn Ward, generational trauma