Liminal Identities and Cultural Hybridity of Third World Women in Women’s Narratives

TANITIM YAZISI

Yakut Akbay’s study Liminal Identities and Cultural Hybridity

of Third World Women in Women’s Narratives focuses on three

novels by three writers: Andrea Levy’s Small Island (2004),

Monica Ali’s Brick Lane (2003), and Sefi Atta’s A Bit of Difference

(2012). All these novels and writers are significant in the field of

contemporary diasporic literature. Levy, an English writer with

Jamaican parentage, writes about the life of Jamaicans in Britain,

the Bangladeshi British Ali depicts Bangladeshi immigrant lives

in London, and the Nigerian American Sefi Atta’s work deals with

Nigerian experiences between London and Lagos.

Akbay’s careful scrutiny of the novels is a valuable contribution

to the analysis of diasporic, immigrant conditions of women.

Akbay analyses the novels’ women characters – especially the

protagonists, Hortense, Nazneen, and Deola – and how they

negotiate their hybrid in-between lives in London, a former

colonial centre. The backgrounds, times, and conditions of the

women are different, but they all face similar problems with

adapting to their new environment. By locating the analyses of

the novels in a postcolonial framework, Akbay is able to pinpoint

the sore points of diasporic women’s lives, and the causes of their

resistance to assimilate.

İÇİNDEKİLER

A Vindication of the Postcolonial Woman:

On the Necessity of Reading Andrea Levy,

Monica Ali, and Sefi Atta Together

Introduction: Women, Diaspora, and the Third Space

Refusing Assimilation, Resisting Return:

Diasporic Women in Literature

Hybridity, Ambivalence, and Belonging:

Theorising Diasporic Women’s Subjectivities

Challenging Monolithic Constructions

The Scope and Structure of the Book

Contribution and Originality

References

CHAPTER 1

Almost the Same, but Never Quite: Unsettling

Mimicry and Identity in Andrea Levy’s Small Island

Introduction: Andrea Levy and Caribbean Literature

Journey from Jamaica to England

Jamaica and the ‘Mother Country’

‘Proper’ English

Roots of the Colonial Mindset

Colonial v. Caribbean Culture

Colonial Fantasy and Metropolitan Reality

“You’re not qualified

Internalised Mimicry

Ideal English Home

The Embedded Afterlife of the Empire

Embracing the Space

Which Is the ‘Small Island’ – Jamaica or England

Conclusion: Transformation of Self, Space, and the Essence of

Belonging

References

CHAPTER 2

From Cultural Fatalism to Personal Agency: Nazneen’s Journey

through Hybridity in Brick Lane

Conclusion

References

CHAPTER 3

Displacement and Self-Discovery: Exploring Transnational

Identity in Sefi Atta’s A Bit Of Difference

Conclusion

References

CONCLUSION

AFTERWORD

GLOSSARY OF TERMS