Browsing by Author "Stenport, Ingegerd"

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CROSSING BORDERS: A Study of Transnational Living in Taiye Selasi’s Ghana Must Go (2014) and No Violet Bulawayo’s We Need New Names (2014)
(2019-10-22) Stenport, Ingegerd; University of Gothenburg/Department of Languages and Literatures; Göteborgs universitet/Institutionen för språk och litteraturer
Abstract: A number of authors of African descent published ‘Afropolitan’ novels around the year 2010. Several of these diaspora novels dominated the literary scene and caused intense debates about the contested concept of Afropolitanism. The authors Taye Selasi and No Violet Bulawayo challenge colonial images of Africa in their writing. They ask the pivotal question: “Who Is an African?” while presenting immigrants of first and second generation who freely move from the African continent to the West and sometimes back again. The novels, Ghana Must Go (2013) and We Need New Names (2014) depict migrants crossing borders and describe the transnational subjects’ views of themselves. In the first part of the essay, I discuss the trope of mobility in relation to feelings of anxiety and alienation in Selasi’s Ghana Must Go, mainly from the perspectives of home, belonging, and estrangement. In part two, I discuss Bulawayo’s We Need New Names from the aforementioned perspectives but with an emphasis on the crossing of political borders. This thesis contributes to the discussion of migrant theories that consider the physical and psychological effects of crossing geographical, political, social, and emotional borders. By applying multiple theories on transnational living in combination with Sara Ahmed’s theories about estrangement, alienation, and dislocation and their impact on the body, my main argument, concerning these two novels, is that subjects change continually and gradually in a multidimensional process. Experiences of changing cultural and social contexts and practices within Africa and the U.S.A. make the fictional characters reconsider their self-identity, transform their subjectivities, and transfer idealized and imaginary localities between the continents.
Real Life as a Play on Stage - A Study of Guilt and Shame in Ian McEwan's "Atonement"
(2013-06-25) Stenport, Ingegerd; University of Gothenburg/Department of Languages and Literatures; Göteborgs universitet/Institutionen för språk och litteraturer
In the novel "Atonement" by Ian McEwan, questions of guilt, shame and redemption are in focus. The main character Briony Tallis is presented as making up for a crime by working on a novel for 59 years. In this essay the novel's proposition of atonement is discussed from three perspectives: Briony as the passive observer and the fictive author of the novel, as the actress in the drama of her life seeking atonement and as the actress in the drama of her own life as well as that of characters Cecilia, Robbie and the Marshalls. In contrast to a statement by McEwan that Briony has atoned for her sins through her efforts in writing the novel, my findings show that it is impossible to argue that fictional amendments qualify for atonement; nor is there any absolution from a religious point of view. On one hand she has matured and reached insight of her inner self, but she does not use her knowledge to make amends. She is more interested in keeping her highly appraised position as a famous writer. The novel's metafictional method complicates this interpretation. McEwan's argument, that history and autobiography are both narrated chosen memories under the same rules, is in this case not applicable since the fictive author neglects facts and transmutes reality into fiction. Briony is from a realistic point of view to be judged as morally flawed and not atoned. It appears that reconciliation with the "self" or redemption are more suitable terms. Considering the characterization given by McEwan I find that Briony is faithful to her passion for storytelling but not taking responsibility for her crime. She rather changes the facts. As the fictive author of the novel she is not trustworthy when turning the full story into a mystery, not controllable, since she has decided to publish the novel after her death. Hereby she dictates the biographies of all involved.
TRANSFORMATION OF THE SELF: A Study of Submissiveness, Trauma, Guilt and Shame in Julie Otsuka’s When the Emperor Was Divine (2002)
(2016-10-07) Stenport, Ingegerd; University of Gothenburg/Department of Languages and Literatures; Göteborgs universitet/Institutionen för språk och litteraturer
The internment of Japanese-American civilians during the Second World War caused many of the interned traumatic experiences. This essay is a contribution to the discussion of trauma theory in literature. By applying multiple theories of oppression, racism, discrimination and intergenerational transmitted trauma to Otsuka’s novel, the essay shows that the reimagined fictionalized trauma of past generations is illustrated in a psychologically realistic way. The focus of the argument is that the characters in When the Emperor Was Divine (2002) have been transformed and that the damage done during the internment lasts and that the healing process will not result in integrated selves. Memories of guilt and shame are shaped by a geographically and socially constructed oppression and discrimination and the appropriated stereotypes of the “alien enemy” become embedded in their transformed identities.