The Hook of Desire

• About the book

Since the poem was first published in 1994, it has been subject to a significant level of critical debate and discussion which continues to the present day. The aim of this book is to bring together a selection of the many articles that have engaged with the poem, and to show how they explore its relationship to the events depicted in the painting. Edited with an Introduction by Lynne Macedo, The Hook of Desire contains eleven articles - three of which were specially commissioned for this book - that examine Dabydeen's work from a number of different perspectives. Some are comparative, considering 'Turner' alongside other fictional responses to the infamous Zong incident, whilst others focus on the work's intertextuality or its exploration of the transformative nature of the sea. A recurrent theme - highlighted by the poem's fragmentary nature - is the inability of language to represent trauma, or to escape from the influence of past representations. In the present political climate with its focus upon 'Black Lives Matter', it seems likely that the powerful legacy of the Zong case, and its many differing interpretations, will continue to resonate.