In John Keene’s “Gloss on a History of Roman Catholics in the Early American Republic, 1790–1825; or the Strange History of Our Lady of the Sorrows,” from Counternarratives, I was most struck by his vivid descriptions of Carmel’s art and art-making process. Some examples of these descriptions can be found on pages 94, 104, and 120. Before drawing, Carmel is overtaken by “a strange and powerful force” (94) that causes her to draw. In all of these experiences, Carmel loses control over her own body. “Her hand was moving so quickly she could barely control it” (104), Keene writes. I interpreted these intense episodes to be an escape for Carmel from the restrictive and systematically racist environment she is confined to as a slave. Each burst of drawing represents a release of Carmel’s consciousness and personhood that is hindered by her position in society. After Carmel finishes a drawing, she is always overtaken by exhaustion: “Her fingers cramped, loosing the nugget. She felt so spent she fell to her knees” (104). Keene’s vivid depictions of Carmel’s process effectively utilize prose to illuminate the position of a slave in a way that is educational for readers and reflective of history.

In “Venus in Two Acts,” Saidiya Hartman further illuminates the power of writing to effect social change, or at least create dialogues about social issues, in the way that Keene’s writing does in Counternarratives. Hartman explains, in reference to African narratives of captivity and enslavement, “it would not be far-fetched to consider stories as a form of compensation or even as reparations, perhaps the only kind we will ever receive.” Writing inspired by social issues has the ability to educate readers about our past and reckon with the voices of the historically silenced and oppressed. I found Keene’s Counternarratives to be evidence of this. I also found this aspect of Keene’s prose to be effective in not engaging in the futile endeavor of filling in the gaps and “providing closure where there is none” that Hartman discusses. To represent Carmel’s experience through the visceral art-making process is to leave room for the truth behind her experience to live in the writing due to what Hartman calls “narrative restraint.”