Lucy, Natalie Anna;
(2024)
Imagined, Movable Worlds: An Anancy Aesthetic and Creating Narrative Spaces in the Storytelling of British Writers of the Caribbean Diaspora.
Doctoral thesis (Ph.D), UCL (University College London).
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Abstract
The shapeshifting Spider God, Anancy, was transported to the Caribbean within the imaginations of those who survived the Middle Passage. Spontaneous and immersive, a panoply of aural and visual features accompanied the stories, which were adapted to offer a unique, multisensory, language on the plantations. Within a spiritual, impregnable circle, they not only reaffirmed a sense of community but provided a semblance of escape. Anancy, the central protagonist of the tales, was also recast as more human and earthbound. His many audacious escapades suggested liberation from the brutal conditions of the plantations, and his intuitiveness and linguistic agility offered attainable methods of resistance. In this thesis, I follow Anancy’s metaphorical and literal journey through the principal stages of his reinvention to his emergence within British writing of the Caribbean diaspora. A primary focus of my research is Anancy’s legacy and, specifically, whether a unique narrative style, which I describe as an ‘Anancy aesthetic’, can be identified within that writing. It encompasses specific facets of both Anancy as he was reinvented within the Caribbean and the many synaesthetic features that informed the tales. Substantially rooted in heritage, their celebration of fluidity and hybridity offered inspiration for those who did not conform to rigid, traditional categories. Significant within a Britain that has historically projected itself as ‘white,’ the tales now inform a host of cultural traditions which are associated with contemporary ideas of Britishness. This thesis represents an inquiry. It seeks to identify and understand the multifarious ways that Anancy has been shaped by the circumstances of his reinvention. Critical to this is why the superficially anodyne trickster provided inspiration for myriad transnational writers across generations, not only through a multisensory style of storytelling but in centralising themes of resistance, heritage and, perhaps most significantly, of voice.
| Type: | Thesis (Doctoral) |
|---|---|
| Qualification: | Ph.D |
| Title: | Imagined, Movable Worlds: An Anancy Aesthetic and Creating Narrative Spaces in the Storytelling of British Writers of the Caribbean Diaspora |
| Open access status: | An open access version is available from UCL Discovery |
| Language: | English |
| Additional information: | Copyright © The Author 2022. Original content in this thesis is licensed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International (CC BY-NC 4.0) Licence (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/). Any third-party copyright material present remains the property of its respective owner(s) and is licensed under its existing terms. Access may initially be restricted at the author’s request. |
| UCL classification: | UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > UCL SLASH UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > UCL SLASH > Faculty of Arts and Humanities UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > UCL SLASH > Faculty of Arts and Humanities > CMII UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > UCL SLASH > Faculty of Arts and Humanities > SELCS UCL |
| URI: | https://discovery.ucl.ac.uk/id/eprint/10186792 |
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