Naslov
Andrea Levy's London as a Diasporic Space of Conflict and Unease

Autori
Ukić Košta, Vesna

Vrsta, podvrsta i kategorija rada
Sažeci sa skupova, sažetak, znanstveni

Izvornik
15th International IDEA Conference: Studies in English - Book of Abstracts / - Hatay, Turska, 2022, 146-146

Skup
15th International IDEA Conference: Studies in English

Mjesto i datum
Hatay, Turska, 11.05.2022. - 13.05.2022

Vrsta sudjelovanja
Poster

Vrsta recenzije
Recenziran

Ključne riječi
Levy, Small Island, Other, multicultural, Windrush, urban space

Sažetak
Caryl Philips aptly suggests that in the years following World War II 'British insecurity was everywhere in evidence’ as the ‘rapacious Empire’ was gradually turning into ‘the toothless Commonwealth’ (110). A vital part of this ubiquitous insecurity was certainly the arrival of the first Caribbean immigrants, black subjects of the King, in June 1948, the event which has been identified as a crucial moment in the history of multi-ethnic, multicultural London and recent British history as well. The novel that this presentation will focus on, Andrea Levy's Small Island (2004), is set during and in the years immediately after World War II, and imaginatively revisits and explores effects that the first generation of West Indian immigrants (popularly known as the Windrush generation) had on white English society, especially London. As Corinne Duboin notices, 'the relocation of colonial subjects within the metropolitan center and the dissolution of porous national boundaries have turned London into a diasporic space that contests fixed racialized ties' (24). The intertwining first-person narratives of Levy’s London-based protagonists (Gilbert and Hortense, Jamaican immigrants, and Queenie and Bernard, a white English couple living in Earl’s Court) show that all members of British society are now forced to make adjustments and redefine their sense of identity, space and belonging. Postwar London which in Small Island can be taken to stand for ‘the toothless Commonwealth’ is portrayed as a space which constantly and painfully tackles the issues of race, ethnicity, gender, class and nationhood

Izvorni jezik
Engleski

Znanstvena područja
Sociologija, Filologija, Povijest, Književnost

POVEZANOST RADA