Oblique Kinds of Blackness in Esi Edugyan’s "Half Blood Blues"

  1. Pilar Cuder-Domínguez 1
  1. 1 Universidad de Huelva
    info

    Universidad de Huelva

    Huelva, España

    ROR https://ror.org/03a1kt624

Journal:
Atlantis: Revista de la Asociación Española de Estudios Anglo-Norteamericanos

ISSN: 0210-6124

Year of publication: 2017

Volume: 39

Issue: 2

Pages: 89-104

Type: Article

DOI: 10.28914/ATLANTIS-2017-39.2.05 DIALNET GOOGLE SCHOLAR lock_openOpen access editor

More publications in: Atlantis: Revista de la Asociación Española de Estudios Anglo-Norteamericanos

Abstract

This paper addresses the meanings of blackness in Esi Edugyan’s second novel, arguing that the text lends itself up to a multiplicity of readings. On one hand, this is achieved by exploring the historicity and geography of race, insofar as the text dwells on how the totalitarian German state and the Second World War concur to impose shifting and sometimes even antagonistic forms of racialization on all non-Aryans. On the other, it is the result of bringing together characters that, while phenotypically belonging to the same group, are yet altogether dissimilar as to origins, language and upbringing. Consequently, the novel showcases experiences and subjectivities across the spectrum of what Paul Gilroy has named “the Black Atlantic.”

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Funding information

1The author wishes to acknowledge the funding provided by the Spanish Ministry of Economy and Competitiveness (Research Project “Bodies in Transit,” ref. FFI2013-47789-C2-1-P) and the European Regional Development Fund for the writing of this essay. Thanks are also due to Libe García-Zarranz and Beatriz Domínguez-García for their insightful comments on an earlier draft presented in the “Bodies in Transit” workshop held at Magdalene College (University of Cambridge, UK) on September 19th, 2016.

Funders

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