Foreign Literature Studies ›› 2018, Vol. 40 ›› Issue (1): 118-127.

• British and American Literature Studies • Previous Articles     Next Articles

Diasporic Narrative and the Anxiety of National Identity in Caryl Phillips’ Novels

Xu Bin   

  • Online:2018-02-25 Published:2022-05-23
  • About author:Xu Bin is professor and Ph.D. supervisor at English Department of the School of Foreign Languages, Central China Normal University (Wuhan 430079, China). His research focuses on modern and contemporary British literature. Email: haihongjiji@163.com
  • Supported by:
    “Studies on Contemporary British Diaspora Literature” (CCNU17A06040) sponsored by Fundamental Research Funds for the Central Universities

Abstract: In his diasporic narratives, contemporary British novelist Caryl Phillips’ subject is not limited to the diaspora blacks. The symbiotic diaspora of white people is also one of the Phillips’ thematic concerns. Through novels, Phillips has pointed out that the diaspora of British whites and the utilization of their labor have caused their anxiety of British citizenship. Correspondingly, the diaspora blacks are suffering from anxiety of British or American citizenship because of the utilization of their labor and the commercialization of their beings. The usefulness and salability of blacks is considered as the basic requirement for black people’s British or American citizenship. Black people’s unconditional acceptance of and submission to diaspora whites in colonies or in Anglo-American societies poses a sharp contrast with Anglo-American whites’ conditional acceptance of diaspora blacks as citizens in Anglo-American societies. Phillips launches his racial moral criticism on Anglo-American whites by his representation of the citizenship anxiety of whites and blacks in his diasporic narrative.

Key words: Caryl Phillips, diasporic narrative, national identity anxiety, racial-moral criticism

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