Sleeping Volcanoes: The Production (and Productivity) of Violence in Joan Anim-Addo\u27s Imoinda, Or She Who Will Lose Her Name

Abstract

This thesis foregrounds the significance of gender and violence in the creolization process within the Caribbean slave system, as depicted in Joan Anim-Addo\u27s libretto, Imoinda, Or She Who Will Lose Her Name. Written as a reimagining of Aphra Behn\u27s novella, Oroonoko, Anim-Addo\u27s Imoinda contends that violence (particularly sexual violence) is an integral component of creolization. Yet, this thesis operates on an understanding of violence in which it signifies a simultaneously destructive and productive event, wherein cultures clash and meld together in order to form a new identity. This thesis further explores the ways that a libretto, as a performative genre, specifically addresses the issue of textual silence that Anim-Addo believes is inherent in Behn\u27s Oroonoko. Finally, this thesis closes with a call to readers, in which the audience (like Imoinda\u27s daughter) is charged `not to forget\u27 neither Imoinda\u27s personal suffering, nor the collective history of her people