In this sense, the textual dedication resembles a kind of gift inasmuch as it enacts a donation that is not or cannot be reciprocated. The novel as a communicative act is addressed to a reading public, but marked from the outset as a kind of testimony of gratitude to a specific person. The author writes "to" someone, meaning not that the text is addressed to the person as the addressee or narratee of a communicative act, but rather is dedicated to that person or that person's memory, as in this case. As the opening gesture of the novel, the dedicatory act signals a peculiar kind of gift. Go Down, Moses famously opens with a dedication: "To Mammy / Caroline Barr / Mississippi / Who was born in slavery and who gave to my family a fidelity without stint or calculation of recompense and to my childhood an immeasurable devotion and love." Inspired by this dedication, I open with a close reading that uncovers competing economies that are inscribed in this paratext and resonate throughout the novel.
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