Representing Mixed Race in Jamaica and England from the Abolition Era to the Present

ISBN-13: 9780415398084 / Angielski / Twarda / 2010 / 214 str.

Sara Salih

Opis

This project examines the representation of "mixed race" female identities in colonial and postcolonial societies, from the eighteenth century to the present. Concentrating particularly on the relationship between Jamaica and England, Salih challenges contemporary theorizations of hybridity, métissage and créolité in a series of historicized, localized readings, arguing that in order to understand contemporary attitudes towards mixed race women, it is necessary to examine specific historical contexts and to trace the genealogy of racial and racist discourses. She examines the figure of the "brown woman" as an object of both desire and horror and as a crucial component of the construction, representation and affirmation of whiteness, and traces the commodification of brownness from the mid-nineteenth-century and the continuing use of images of brown women to sell products. This study demonstrates the striking connections between historical and contemporary discourses of race and brownness and argues for a shift in the ways we think about, represent and discuss "mixed race" people.

Recenzje

'Sara Salih offers a welcome and rigourse analysis of the relationships among the development of the law, notions of subjectivity, and discourses of race and sexuality in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries in England and Jamaica. This book makes a productive contribution to on-going critical conversations about the complexity and nuance of race in the British past by responding explicitly to David Scott's suggestion that we consider more carefully the stories we assume we know, particularly about slavery.' - Nicole N. Aljoe, ECF

Spis treści

1: Introduction: The Mulatto in Law and Literature 2: Pre-Emancipation Stories of Race: Marly and The Woman of Colour 3: Legitimacy, Illegitimacy and Citizenship in the Nineteenth Century: Dinah Craik’s Olive and Richard Hill’s Lights and Shadows 4: Mulattos in the Contact Zone: Mary Seacole and Ozias Midwinter Coda: Modern Mulattos: Mona Lisa and The Crying Game Notes Bibliography Index

O autorze

Sara Salih is Professor in the Department of English, University of Toronto, Canada. She is the author of Judith Butler in the Routledge Critical Thinkers series, and she has edited the Penguin editions of The History of Mary Prince, A West Indian Slave (2000) and Wonderful Adventures of Mrs Seacole in Many Lands (2005). She has also edited, in collaboration with Judith Butler, The Judith Butler Reader (Blackwell, 2004).