Wilson Harris’s re-visionary strategy in his second novel, The Far Journey of Oudin, is influenced by the intuitive blend of quantum physics and the Haitian vodun belief of expedition or l’envoi morts (sending of the dead)

Abstract

In his theoretical writings, Wilson Harris asserts that the revisionary momentum in all proportions of narrative convention represents an essential aspect of artistic creativity. Above all, Harris’s revisionary dynamic or alterations of absolute models of fiction is most influenced by his intuitive combination of shamanistic beliefs and quantum physics. The Far Journey of Oudin is one of Harris’s fictional works that reflects such an assertion. The major objective of this paper is to demonstrate that Wilson Harris’s revisionary strategy in the novel, The Far Journey of Oudin is influenced by the intuitive blend of the Haitian vodun practice of expedition or l’envoi morts (sending of the dead) and quantum physics. Harris’s intuitive combination of l’envoi morts, parallel universes and quantum entanglement has allowed him to create a novel which “diverges from one-track realism” (“Apprenticeship” 233). The parallel universes of quantum physics combined with the resurrected body of l’envoi morts creates a “breach … in the tautology of … the [conventional] story-line” (“The Unfinished Genesis” 250). Most importantly, Harris’s unconscious or intuitive dialogue with l’envoi morts, parallel universes and quantum entanglement offers him the opportunity to “revise the one-sided moral conclusions built into the … premises of the novel” (“Reflections” 94). Furthermore, this essay will be guided by Alfred Metraux’s and Maya Deren’s anthropological and psychological explanation of the Haitian vodun practice of l’envoi morts. Above all, Reginald Crosley’s analysis of the shamanic practice of l’envoi morts in a quantum physics framework, will be referenced in this essay.