Modeling the African Diaspora. Narrative Representations of Diasporic Blackness in Black British Fiction

von Mariam Muwanga

196 Seiten, Taschenbuch

Kurzbeschreibung des Verlags

Combining narratology, diaspora studies, and critical race theory, this study contributes to the emerging field of critical race narratology and advances Black British literary scholarship. It reconsiders the politics of representation by demonstrating that social conventions regarding race are constitutive of narrative form. Proposing a race-conscious approach, the study applies key tenets of critical race theory to strategies such as the semanticization of space, focalization, and characterization, revealing how the agency of Black diasporic subjects is discursively produced.
This book introduces three new concepts: wiggle space, focalization privilege, and White allies. Readings of novels by Sam Selvon (The Lonely Londoners), Bernadine Evaristo (The Emperor’s Babe and Girl, Woman, Other), Andrea Levy (Small Island), Zadie Smith (White Teeth and Swing Time), and Diran Adebayo (Some Kind of Black) explore how Black protagonists manage to not only exist and survive but also thrive in a society shaped by racial conventions tied to colonialism and the gravitational pull of Whiteness.


CONTENTS


1 Introduction 1
1.1 Literature and the Construction of Race 1
1.2 Black British Literary Scholarship: State of the Art 7
1.3 Central Arguments and Premises 11
1.4 Structure of the Book 15


2 Diaspora: A Traveling Concept? 20
2.1 Classical Notions of Diaspora: A Sociological Perspective 22
2.2 Diaspora: A Constructivist Perspective 27
2.3 Diaspora: Transnational Perspectives 30


3 Narratology, Ideology and Race 39
3.1 Narratology and Race: From Feminist Narratology to Critical Race Narratology 41
3.1.1 Feminist and Postcolonial Narratologies 41
3.1.2 Cultural Narratology: Literature as a Culture-Modeling System 44
3.1.3 Critical Race Narratology 55
3.2 A Race-Conscious Narratological Approach: ‘Wiggle Space,’ Focalization Privilege, and White Allies 59
3.2.1 Race-Consciousness and the Tenets of Critical Race Theory 60
3.2.2 Wiggle Space: Black Agency and Racialization of Space 71
3.2.3 Focalization Privilege: ‘Seeing’ through a ‘Black Gaze’ 74
3.2.4 Character Types and the White Ally Trope 80


4 Modes of Representing Blackness in Black British Fiction 86
4.1 Wiggle Space and Agency in Black British Fiction 86
4.1.1 The Lonely Londoners: Black Agency and the Windrush Era 86
4.1.2 Small Island: Black Presence during the Second World War 98
4.1.3 The Emperor’s Babe: Roman Britain and Black Agency 104
4.1.4 Adopting a White Bourgeois Habitus in Some Kind of Black 109
4.1.5 Securing Wiggle Space in Girl, Woman, Other 114
4.2 Focalization Privilege: ‘Seeing’ through a ‘Black Gaze’ 119
4.2.1 ‘Cultural Insiders’ as Focalizers in The Lonely Londoners 120
4.2.2 The ‘Black Gaze’ on the (Post)war Era in Small Island 125
4.2.3 Some Kind of Black: Focalization Privilege and Identity 129
4.2.4 White Teeth: Focalization Privilege and a Multicultural Britain 137
4.2.5 Perspectival Change and Empathy in Girl, Woman, Other 141
4.3 The White Ally Trope in Black British Fiction 147
4.3.1 Queenie’s Dilemma of Allyship in Small Island 148
4.3.2 Playing ‘Privilege Olympics’: Allyship in Girl, Woman, Other 155
4.3.3 The ‘White Savior’: Characterization in Swing Time 160


5 Conclusion 167
5.1 The Point of a Race-Conscious Narratological Approach 167
5.2 An Outlook, or: Where do we go from here? 170


6 Bibliography 173

• Reihe: Studies in English Literary and Cultural History (ELCH) /Studien zur Englischen Literatur- und Kulturwissenschaft (ELK)
• ISBN: 9783989400771
• Sprache: Englisch
• Erscheinungsdatum: 04.08.2025
• Genre: Sprachwissenschaft, Literaturwissenschaft/Englische Sprachwissenschaft, Literaturwissenschaft
• Verlag: WVT Wissenschaftlicher Verlag Trier