“FROM THE ROOT OF THE OLD ONE”: RECONFIGURING INDIVIDUAL AND COLLECTIVE IDENTITIES IN ANGLOPHONE AFRO-CARIBBEAN POETRY A THESIS SUBMITTED TO THE GRADUATE SCHOOL OF SOCIAL SCIENCES OF MIDDLE EAST TECHNICAL UNIVERSITY BY ÖZLEM TÜRE IN PARTIAL FULFILLMENT OF THE REQUIREMENTS FOR THE DEGREE OF MASTER OF ARTS IN ENGLISH LITERATURE OCTOBER 2007 Approval of the Graduate School of (Name of the Graduate School) ___________________ Prof. Dr. Sencer Ayata Director I certify that this thesis satisfies all the requirements as a thesis for the degree of Master of Arts. ___________________ Prof. Dr. Wolf König Head of Department This is to certify that we have read this thesis and that in our opinion it is fully adequate, in scope and quality, as a thesis for the degree of Master of Arts. ___________________ Assist. Prof. Dr. Margaret J-M Sönmez Supervisor Examining Committee Members Assist. Prof. Dr. Nurten Birlik (METU, ELIT) ___________________ Assist. Prof. Dr. Margaret J-M Sönmez (METU, ELIT) ___________________ Prof. Dr. Necati Polat (METU, IR) ___________________ I hereby declare that all information in this document has been obtained and presented in accordance with academic rules and ethical conduct. I also declare that, as required by these rules and conduct, I have fully cited and referenced all material and results that are not original to this work. Name, Last name : Özlem Türe Signature : iii ABSTRACT “FROM THE ROOT OF THE OLD ONE”: RECONFIGURING INDIVIDUAL AND COLLECTIVE IDENTITIES IN ANGLOPHONE AFRO-CARIBBEAN POETRY Türe, Özlem M.A., Programme in English Literature Supervisor: Assist. Prof. Dr. Margaret J-M Sönmez October 2007, 134 pages This thesis analyzes how Afro-Caribbean poets writing in English appropriate language and use memory as a thematic tool to articulate postcolonial identities. The present study is organized in three parts: the first part provides the necessary theoretical background regarding postcolonial theory, the politics of hybridity and resistance; the second part examines poets’ struggles over language and social forms of poetry; the third part deals with the site of memory as a revisionary tool in rewriting history poetically, binding pre-colonial and colonial identities, and healing the fractured psyches of postcolonial societies. The struggle over language and the use of memory enable the Afro-Caribbean poet to reconfigure individual and collective identities. For these purposes, Grace Nichols’ i is a long memoried woman (1983), Edward Kamau Brathwaite’s X/Self (1987) and Linton Kwesi Johnson’s Tings’ an Times (1991) will be analyzed. Keywords: Afro-Caribbean Poetry, Postcolonial Theory, Hybridity, Language, Cultural Memory iv ÖZ “ESK İNİN KÖKEN İNDEN”: AFRO-KARAY İP KÖKENL İ İNG İLİZ Şİİ RİNDE B İREYSEL VE TOPLUMSAL KİML İK OLU ŞUMU Türe, Özlem Yüksek Lisans, İngiliz Edebiyatı Programı Tez Yöneticisi: Assist. Prof. Dr. Margaret J-M Sönmez Ekim 2007, 134 sayfa Bu tez İngiliz dilinde eser veren Afro-Karayip kökenli şairlerin postkoloniyel kimlikler olu şturmak için dil ve belle ği nasıl kullandıklarını incelemektedir. Bu çalı şma üç bölümden olu şmaktadır. İlk bölüm postkoloniyel kuram, melezlik ve resistans politikalarıyla ilgili gerekli kuramsal bilgiyi sa ğlamaktadır. İkinci Bölüm Afro-Karayip kökenli İngiliz şairlerin İngiliz dili ve şiirinin hakim biçimleri üzerindeki mücadelesini gözden geçirmektedir. Üçüncü Bölüm kültürel belle ğin, sömürgecilik tarihini yeniden yazma, sömürgecilik öncesi ve sonrası kimlikleri bir araya getirme ve postkoloniyel toplumların bölünmüş zihinlerinin iyile ştirilmesinde tematik bir araç olarak kullanılmasını incelenmektedir. Dilin ve kültürel belle ğin kullanımı üzerindeki mücadele Afro-Karayip kökenli İngiliz şairlerin yeni bireysel ve toplumsal kimlikler tanımlamasına imkan vermektedir. Bu do ğrultuda Grace Nichols’un i is a long memoried woman ’ı (1983), Edward Kamau Brathwaite’in X/Self ’i (1987) ve Linton Kwesi Johnson’un Tings an’ Times ’ı (1991) çözümlenecektir. Anahtar Kelimeler: Afro-Karayip Şiiri, Postkoloniyel Kuram, Melezlik, Dil, Kültürel Bellek v To My Family Hatice, Nurullah, Ça ğda ş Özgür and Hakan vi ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS I would like to express my deepest gratitude to my advisor, Assist. Prof. Dr. Margaret J-M Sönmez for her encouragement, guidance, intellectual and academic support throughout this study. I should express my earnest thanks to Assist. Prof. Dr. Nurten Birlik for her constant support and academic inspiration. I am also grateful to Prof. Dr. Necati Polat for his invaluable comments on Homi Bhabha and Derrida. I would like to thank Prof. Dr. Judith Yarnall for she created a stimulating intellectual environment in our African-American literature class, which has proved invaluable to the development of my understanding of the concepts and arguments in this thesis. I am also grateful to my professors at METU, Programme in English Literature and at Hacettepe University, Department of English Language and Literature. I wish to thank Fırat Karada ş for reading and commenting on the drafts of this thesis. Warm thanks also go to my fellow colleagues and friends for their constant support: Burcu Gündo ğdu Yılmaz, Seda İlter, Hatice Emre, Zeynep Ölçü, Deniz Şallı Çopur, Reyyan Bal, Gül şah Do ğrusoy Ba şkavak, Ceren Katipo ğlu. I am immensely indebted to my family for their unconditional love and support all through my life. Lastly, I could not have survived this journey without faith, love and patience of my husband, Hakan Abacı. vii TABLE OF CONTENTS PLAGIARISM........................................................................................................ iii ABSTRACT.. ......................................................................................................... iv ÖZ.. ......................................................................................................................... v DEDICATION............................................................................................................vi ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS ................................................................................... vii TABLE OF CONTENTS...................................................................................... viii CHAPTER 1. INTRODUCTION ........................................................................................... 1 1.1 Methods and Techniques ............................................................................ 7 1.2. The Aim of the Study ................................................................................ 7 1.3. Limitations of the Study ............................................................................ 8 2. THEORETICAL BACKGROUND.................................................................10 2.1. Post(-/)colonial(-ism/-ity): Naming the Unnameable.................................10 2.2 Characteristics of Postcolonial Theory and Literatures...............................13 2.2.1. Theory or Practice: Reading against the Grain... ................................15 2.3. Strategies of Subversion and Resistance in Postcolonial Literatures..........16 2.4. Homi Bhabha’s Post/colonial Terminology ..............................................19 2.4.1. Ambivalence of Colonial Discourse, Mimicry and Hybridity......... ....20 2.4.2. Time-lag, Catachresis and “Third Space”...........................................28 2.5. Towards Postcolonial Identity and Agency...............................................32 2.6 Postcolonialism and West Indian Literature...............................................36 3. “WHERE IS YOUR KINGDOM OF THE WORD?”: THE STRUGGLE OVER LANGUAGE...........................................................................................40 3.1 X/cifying language and identity: Brathwaite’s X/Self .................................48 3.2. I am “holding my beads in my hands”: Language and Identity in i is a long memoried woman ................................................................................62 3.3 Dubbing de Queen’s English: Linton Kwesi Johnson’s Tings an’ Times ....75 4. MEMORY IN LIVE PERFORMANCE ..........................................................88 viii 4.1. Ancestral Memory and The Use of Magical Montage Technique in X/Self .............................................................................................................92 4.2. Reinscribing Slave Women’s Identity in Grace Nichols’ i is a long memoried woman ..........................................................................................101 4.3 “It is not mistri, we mekkin histri”: Rewriting the History of Black Britain...........................................................................................................113 5. CONCLUSION.............................................................................................121 REFERENCES .....................................................................................................126 ix CHAPTER I INTRODUCTION it is not it is not it is not enough it is not enough to be free of the whips, principalities and powers where is your kingdom of the Word? (Brathwaite, The Arrivants 222) The thesis aims to explore how Afro-Caribbean poets’ struggle over language and the employment of memory as a thematic device provide an important way for understanding the construction of individual and collective identities in Anglophone Afro-Caribbean poetry. In recent decades, a significant amount of literary output has been produced in the former colonies of Britain. This inevitably leads to the geographical and physical