Description
Book SynopsisThis book is a comparative examination of the second generation children of immigrants in black Canadian and black British women’s writing that dialogues with black diaspora and postcolonial theory, feminist and social geography, and cultural studies.
Trade Review"Particularly valuable in Medovarski’s work is her conceptualization of the second generation in terms of its expansion of the "conditions of possibility" (a concept borrowed from Michel de Certeau). In other words, Medovarski conceives of the second generation not just as a resistant force, but instead as a transformative one that can work to "remake citizenship on other, more ethical or more inclusive terms" and thereby create nations that are "‘more’ than they currently are." Medovarski takes her cue from a wonderful selection of texts, intervening nicely into already established discourses surrounding some of the more well-known texts." -- Veronica Austen * Canadian Literature, August 2020 *
Table of ContentsAcknowledgments Introduction. “Settling Down and Settling Up”: Conceptualizing the Second Generation 1. “A Kind of New Vocabulary”: Dionne Brand’s (Re)Mappings in What We All Long For 2. “Belonging Is What You Give Yourself”: Tessa McWatt’s Out of My Skin 3. “I Knew This Was England”: Myths of “Back Home” in Andrea Levy’s Fruit of the Lemon 4. “The Abuses of Settlement”: Esi Edugyan’s The Second Life of Samuel Tyne 5. “When Roots Won’t Matter Anymore”: Zadie Smith’s White Teeth Conclusion: “Conditions of Possibility” Notes Works Cited Index
