Decolonising Literature : Exclusionary Practices and Writing to Resist/Re-Exist

Linköpings universitet, Tema Genus 2018

Johansson, Stephanie

This thesis examines elements of the conceptualization of literature within literary studies and literary production in a UK context, considering the concept of exclusionary practices based on the negligence of intersectional categories of identity such as race, gender, class, sexuality, etc., in the practice of understanding and interpreting literature. The methodologies I employ are close reading of various narratives, such as literary texts, as well as a narrative analysis aimed at a holistic understanding of my material. The second part of this thesis envisions a decolonised approach to literature in which we situate our positionalities when we read and interpret literary works. I demonstrate this through the analysis of several poems, informed by decolonial concepts and sensibilities. The results show that the maintenance of these exclusionary practices advances a grand-narrative of Western civilisation, ignoring the multiple sites people inhabit both from within, and outside, the West and that these practices are effectively harmful. I argue that through the project of decolonising literature there is a possibility of disrupting the perpetual macro-narrative of Western domination and universality.

decolonising; literary studies; English literature; American literature; canons; macro-narrative; grand narratives; close reading; narrative analysis; postcolonial theory; decolonial theory; canonisation; Romanticism; othering; nation-state; national identity; publishing industry; Gender Studies; Genusstudier; Student thesis; info:eu-repo/semantics/bachelorThesis; text

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