Interworlds and Inter-Identities in Mémoires d’outre-mer and Scrabble

Abstract

Mémoires d’outre-mer and Scrabble, a biography of Ferrier’s paternal grandfather and an autobiographical account of Ferrier’s childhood respectively, are two quite different works from the point of view of structure, setting and characters. But I propose to analyse them together in this article because I believe they have much in common; a particular attitude towards the natural world, a non-standard view of space and time as well as of human identity and memory, and a deep-seated belief in the power of language. In this essay I focus specifically on the theme of human identity within, and as part of, the external world, and will be making use of some conceptual frameworks from ecocriticism in order to look at these works from a new perspective.