JEZIK, KNJIŽEVNOST I DIJALOG (2024): 1–12
AUTHOR(S) / АУТОР(И): M.G. Sanchez
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DOI: 10.46793/LLD24.001S
ABSTRACT / САЖЕТАК:
In this paper Gibraltarian novelist M. G. Sanchez examines how history is used in the British overseas territory of Gibraltar as a tool for self-definition, and how his own writing challenges what he describes as ‘one-dimensional readings of the past.’ He first of all discusses Jonathan Gallardo, a novel which, though outwardly couched in the form of a supernatural tale, explores Gibraltar’s colonial past – “an unrecorded history of division and conflict that wasn’t supposed to exist but which nonetheless oozes like spectral mould out of Gibraltar’s crumbling ancient walls.” In the second part of his paper, the author turns his attention to Marlboro Man, his groundbreaking 2022 novel which focuses on tobacco and drug smuggling in the Rock in the 1980s and early 1990s. Since its publication a year and a half ago, a number of Gibraltar’s artists and writers have been talking about this previously taboo part of Gibraltar’s recent history. This suggests that the French theorist Jacques Derrida was right when he maintained that the only way to come to terms with the past was by allowing its ghosts to dialogue with us. Or as M. G. Sanchez puts it in Marlboro Man: ‘Disowned and rejected, the past is almost like an unexploded WW2 shell buried just yards away from the base of a modern motorway bridge abutment. Left untouched, there is a very good chance that it will grow rustier and rustier and that its demonic power will never be unleashed. But it is only by unearthing it and physically handling it – by opening it up, in other words, and tinkering around with its internal wiring – that you can truly render it safe for posterity
KEYWORDS / КЉУЧНЕ РЕЧИ:
REFERENCES / ЛИТЕРАТУРА:
- De Luca, Santiago, editor (2021). Sures: Sures en Gibraltar. Tangier: Sures Publishers.
- Derrida, Jacques (1987). The Post Card: From Socrates to Freud and Beyond. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.
- Derrida, Jacques (1994). Specters of Marx: The State of the Debt, the Work of Mourning, and the New International. London: Routledge.
Ford, Richard (1845). A Handbook for Travellers in Spain and Readers at Home. London: J. Murray. - Sanchez, M. G (2015). Jonathan Gallardo. Gibraltar: Rock Scorpion Books.
- Sanchez, M. G (2022). Marlboro Man. Gibraltar: The Dabuti Collective.
- Sanchez, M. G (2016). Past: A Memoir. Gibraltar: Rock Scorpion Books.
Documents
- Venereal Disease’ box file, Gibraltar National Archives.
Websites
- Mir, Jonathan (accessed 9-8-24). ‘Winston City’. URL:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fnpbxj2Qy2g&ab_channel=JamesMir/. - Sanchez, M. G (accessed 6-8-24). ‘Readers Respond To Diary of a Victorian Colonial’. URL: https://www.mgsanchez.net/readersresponsetodiaryofavc/.