Diplomarbeit / Diploma Thesis

DIPLOMARBEIT / DIPLOMA THESIS Titel der Diplomarbeit/ Title of the Diploma Thesis: "(Re)writing England Through the Lens of Female, Black and Queer Identity: Selected Poems by Patience Agbabi“ Verfasst von/ submitted by Giulia Deiana angestrebter akademischer Grad / in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Magistra der Philosophie (Mag. phil.) Wien, 2019/ Vienna, 2019, Studienkennzahl lt. Studienblatt: A 190 344 350 degree programme code as it appears on the student record sheet: Studienrichtung lt. Studienblatt / Lehramtsstudium UF Englisch UF italienisch programme as it appears on the student record sheet: Betreut von / Supervised by: Emer. o. Univ.-Prof. Dr. Margarete Rubik Acknowledgements I would like to thank Prof. Rubik for her precious help, her contagious enthusiasm and her patience, my grandmothers Mirella and Rosa for teaching me how to overcome obstacles with grace and dignity (and a smile), my family and Sonja for the support and the love, and Ludwig for always believing in me “What really knocks me out is a book that, when you're all done reading it, you wish the author that wrote it was a terrific friend of yours and you could call him up on the phone whenever you felt like it. That doesn't happen much, though.” ― J.D. Salinger, The Catcher in the Rye Table of Contents 1. Introduction ............................................................................................................................................... 1 2. About Patience Agbabi .......................................................................................................................... 5 2.1 Biography .......................................................................................................................................... 5 2.2 Style, Influences and Poetics .................................................................................................... 7 2.3 “Transformatrix: Girls Who Are Boys, Dominatrixes, Garçonnes”....................... 15 2.4 “Telling Tales: Chaucer Tales, Track by Track, It's the Remix” .............................. 21 3. Theoretical Frameworks .................................................................................................................. 27 3.1 Intersectionality and Categorisation Issues ................................................................... 27 3.2 Agbabi’s Feminist Views .......................................................................................................... 35 3.3 Agbabi in the Light of Queer Theory .................................................................................. 36 3.4 Agbabi’s Portrayal of Black Identity .................................................................................. 42 3.5 Intertextuality, Adaptation and Appropriation ............................................................ 47 4. Female Voices ........................................................................................................................................ 55 5. Agbabi’s Queering Practice .............................................................................................................. 81 6. There is Black in the Union Jack .................................................................................................... 98 7. Conclusion .............................................................................................................................................118 8. List of Works Cited ............................................................................................................................121 9. Appendix ................................................................................................................................................130 1. Introduction In 2005, the Arts Council England (ACE) commissioned a report1 with the aim of examining diversity within the realm of British poetry. The situation was alarming: black and Asian poets accounted for a mere 1% of published poets in the UK. Fortunately, the figures have risen in the last decade, but the numbers remain relatively low. A diachronic study carried out between 2012 and 2018 by the University of Liverpool2 shows that only 9.1% of the 20,000 poems published in this time span were authored by poets of colour. It emerges from this picture that black British poetry is still “a hidden, marginalised affair” (Welsh 181). Even in the worlds of academia and literary criticism, black British poetry holds a somewhat marginal position, eclipsed by the more popular genre of narrative fiction (see Salman Rushdie, Zadie Smith, Monica Ali, etc.). This fact can be observed in the scarcity of publications about black British poets, except in the case of a few, prominent names that have made it into anthologies and have sometimes become public figures, collaborating on projects of various natures (e.g. Bernardine Evaristo, Benjamin Zephaniah, Jackie Kay). Nonetheless, most Britons might not be familiar even with these well-known personalities. Poetry is indeed still seen as the “taxonomic other” (Zettelmann 137) when compared to narrative fiction, living in the shade of this persistent dichotomy. The genre is in itself cryptic and requires a certain effort in order to decode the meanings encapsulated in its brevity, making it more difficult to be appreciated upon a superficial reading. It is not a coincidence that instances of best-selling poetry are rarer than in fiction, as nowadays the average reader seems to be more oriented towards more accessible kinds of readings, such as thrillers and romance novels.3 In order to illustrate this tendency, it is sufficient to observe the sale statistics within the UK. Even if poetry sales have risen by 12% in the last year, in 2017 1.3 million 1 “Free Verse Report” (2005), commissioned by the Arts Council England, the Scottish Arts Council, and the Arts Council of Wales. 2 “The State of Poetry and Poetry Criticism in the UK and Ireland 2012-2018,” The Ledbury Emerging Poetry Critics sponsored by Centre for New and International Writing, the archives at the Scottish Poetry Library, and the National Library of Scotland. 3 “The Information: Genre Fiction Sales”, Anna Chambers, Financial Times. - 1 - volumes of poetry were sold, compared to the 18.1 million sales of general and literary fiction and the 18.7 million of crime books.4 If we then consider poetry in combination with a postcolonial element, the result appears rather unfortunate (at least in terms of the sales figures, as demonstrated in the first paragraph). It is certainly a shame to observe this phenomenon since black British identity constitutes an important part of the multicultural British society. Moreover, there are a number of emergent poets that wish to make their contribution to the portrayal of Britain from a non-hegemonic perspective. It is long overdue to give prominence to these voices, especially in this specific historical moment, when many parts of the world are experiencing a rise in nationalism. The politics of cultural homogeneity and fervour for tradition advocated by these political currents can inevitably have negative effects on minorities, who are increasingly at risk of being disregarded and, under the worst circumstances, being silenced. In this scenario, the notion of minorities does not only include ethnic and cultural ones, as previously discussed, but also sexual and gender minority groups. Therefore, it is important that universities as well as other educational institutions – but also public broadcasters and the press – dedicate enough space and time to allow these identities to be heard, recognised and explored by a greater audience. As Bertram argues, “literary criticism shapes canons. Academics and teachers play a large part in determining what gets read and taught, hence what secures a place in literary history” (2005: 11-12). Without entering the system, most of these voices continue to be neglected. It is also crucial to remember that reaching a wider public and making people more familiar with these non-normative identities also helps to mitigate the fear of the unknown, of the abject, of the Other, which is a tendency we urgently have to counteract in our present society. “In times of political upheaval and uncertainty,” argues director of Nielsen Book Research Andre Breedt, “people turn to poems to make sense of the world” (“Poetry Sales”, The Guardian), a statement that suits the current socio-political situation. For this reason, I decided to analyse the poetry of Patience Agbabi, a unique case in the panorama of contemporary British poetry since she “embrace[s] the page-stage, 4 See “Record Numbers Of Readers Buying Poetry In The UK”, Arts Journal and “Crime pays: thrillers and detective novels now outsell all other fiction”, Anita Singh, The Telegraph. - 2 - black-white, / heterosexual-homosexual continuum” (Agbabi 2008: 34). In 2004, Agbabi was nominated one of Britain’s Next Generation Poets, an award that granted her some deserved recognition from the critics. Amongst the wider reading public, by contrast, the poet is still largely unknown. In spite of the increasing academic interest in her work, there seems to be a scarcity of secondary literature reviewing her writing. Part of the existing research focuses on formal aspects of her poetry, also connected with her activity as a performance poet. In this thesis, I would like to analyse an aspect that needs more investigation, namely the intersection of different, sometimes overlapping, identities.

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