“TARİHİN AKIŞINA KARŞI:” JULIA ALVAREZ’İN A WEDDING IN HAITI ADLI YAPITINDA TANIKLIK ETİĞİ

Abstract

Bu makale, Julia Alvarez’in A Wedding in Haiti adlı eserini, bireysel deneyimlerle kolektif tarihin kesiştiği çok yönlü bir bellek mekânı olarak inceler. Anı, seyahat yazını ve tanıklık türlerini bir araya getiren Alvarez, belleği geçmiş ile şimdi, ben ile öteki, Dominikli ile Haitili arasında sürekli bir duygulanımsal etkileşim olarak kurgular. Metin, Hispanyola adasını paylaşan iki ülkenin ortak travmalarını yeniden ele alırken, biçimsel yenilikleriyle yeni bir kültürel bellek repertuvarı oluşturur. Yazarın diasporik bakış açısı, sömürgeci tarih yazımına alternatif bir dekolonyal perspektif sunar ve iki ulus arasındaki ilişkileri; yerinden edilme, direniş ve iyileşme tarihleri üzerinden yeniden yorumlar. Alvarez’in “us-moir” olarak adlandırdığı anlatı biçimi, Batı merkezli bireysel seyahat yazını geleneğine karşı bir alternatif sunar. Bu çerçevede hikâye anlatıcılığı, geçmişle yüzleşmenin ve tanıklığın etik biçimine dönüşür. Makale, A Wedding in Haiti’nin duygulanımı yeni bir hatırlama ve etik ilişki biçimi olarak harekete geçirdiğini savunur. Buradan hareketle, makale, Alvarez’in anlatısının sömürgecilik tarihini ve Karayip coğrafyasını ulusal sınırların ötesinde yeniden düşünmeye imkân tanıdığını ortaya koyar.

Keywords

• Çok yönlü bellek
• seyahat yazını
• duygulanım
• A Wedding in Haiti
• Julia Alvarez

“AGAINST THE CURRENTS OF HISTORY:” AFFECT AND THE ETHICS OF WITNESSING IN JULIA ALVAREZ’S A WEDDING IN HAITI

Abstract

This article examines Julia Alvarez’s A Wedding in Haiti as a multidirectional site of memory where the intersections of individual experiences and collective histories remap the Caribbean island of Hispaniola. Blending memoir, travel writing, and testimonial modes, Alvarez constructs a narrative in which memory moves through affective registers and serves as a dynamic exchange between past and present, self and other, Dominican and Haitian. Through its multidirectional memory work, the text not only revisits the shared traumas that haunt Hispaniola but also generates a new repertoire of cultural memory through formal experimentation. Alvarez’s diasporic perspective operates as a decolonial lens that reimagines the Dominican-Haitian relationship, tracing how histories of colonial violence, displacement, and resilience continue to shape the island’s shared geography. Simultaneously, her notion of the us-moir challenges the autobiographical conventions of Western travel writing. In this framework, storytelling becomes an ethical practice of witnessing in which emotional attunement serves as a way of engaging with the past and responding to its lingering injustices. The article ultimately argues that A Wedding in Haiti mobilizes affect to cultivate new forms of remembrance and ethical relation, demonstrating how Alvarez’s travelogue uses narrative and emotion together to reimagine shared histories beyond colonial and national divisions.

Keywords

• Multidirectional memory
• travelogue
• affect
• A Wedding in Haiti
• Julia Alvarez

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