Space and Memory in Bernardine Evaristo’s Girl, Woman, Other

Abstract

Bernardine Evaristo’s novel Girl, Woman, Other uses the places “the Greenfield Farm” and “National Theatre” as places imprinted cultural memories. The former symbolizes the equally important roles of reformers and radicals in inspiring intellectual progress and constructing social memory, while the latter signifies the breaking of conventions and the empowerment of those pushed to the margins by patriarchal and white supremacist Britain, both of which complement each other in constructing a historical space dominated by the collective authority of black women in Britain. Combined with Assmann’s theory of cultural memory, collective memory and individual memory, especially the latter, have had a significant impact on the construction of individual and social memory.