Pervasive extractivism: petroculture and sedimented histories in Sandrine Bessora’s Petroleum
Pervasive extractivism: petroculture and sedimented histories in Sandrine Bessora’s Petroleum
The aim of this paper is twofold, first to explore how Sandrine Bessora’s novel Petroleum (2004) engages with the Medea intertext, and thus inserting itself in a specific literary filiation, addresses the writing of history. Second, how, through the merging of the Medea myth with the Mami Wata character from West African beliefs the novel fictionalises the history of colonialism as entangled with that of extractivism, making visible petrol’s pervasive participation into neo-colonial practices in Gabon. The paper thus addresses how extractivism and the petroculture framework permit to revise and rewrite the energetic and colonial aspect of Gabonese history. In challenging the traditional unfolding of the Medea myth, Bessora’s novel proposes to look at the history of colonisation and natural resource extraction in Gabon through non-European petroculture perspectives.
oil, territory, pollution, anthropocene, imperialism, offshore, Gabon, petroculture, extractivism
Champion, Giulia
1eea3a93-f0d1-44e0-a438-ead183ea6f62
3 August 2023
Champion, Giulia
1eea3a93-f0d1-44e0-a438-ead183ea6f62
Champion, Giulia
(2023)
Pervasive extractivism: petroculture and sedimented histories in Sandrine Bessora’s Petroleum.
Journal of Energy History - Revue d'Histoire de l'Énergie, 10.
Abstract
The aim of this paper is twofold, first to explore how Sandrine Bessora’s novel Petroleum (2004) engages with the Medea intertext, and thus inserting itself in a specific literary filiation, addresses the writing of history. Second, how, through the merging of the Medea myth with the Mami Wata character from West African beliefs the novel fictionalises the history of colonialism as entangled with that of extractivism, making visible petrol’s pervasive participation into neo-colonial practices in Gabon. The paper thus addresses how extractivism and the petroculture framework permit to revise and rewrite the energetic and colonial aspect of Gabonese history. In challenging the traditional unfolding of the Medea myth, Bessora’s novel proposes to look at the history of colonisation and natural resource extraction in Gabon through non-European petroculture perspectives.
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Published date: 3 August 2023
Keywords:
oil, territory, pollution, anthropocene, imperialism, offshore, Gabon, petroculture, extractivism
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Local EPrints ID: 482546
URI: http://eprints.soton.ac.uk/id/eprint/482546
PURE UUID: 393a4228-f38d-46e0-88b6-2058d69db741
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Date deposited: 10 Oct 2023 16:52
Last modified: 17 Mar 2024 04:56
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Author:
Giulia Champion
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