On Name Symbolism in Caryl Phillips’ Crossing the River

Abstract

Crossing the River, Caryl Phillips’ 1993 acclaimed novel, tells three intertwined stories of slavery and de-humanization in which black men and white girls are mishandled, traded like goods, and exploited as unpaid labourers or objects of sexual pleasure by their white masters or husbands. An eloquent sign of human debasement is that, on Captain James Hamilton’s ship, black slaves are nameless and identified only by numbers, but other rigid designators bear strong symbolical implications. This essay discusses the function of name symbolism in the text by taking into consideration people’s and ship’s denominations, as well as the name of some places.