Everyday movements of errantry

UNCG Author/Contributor (non-UNCG co-authors, if there are any, appear on document)
Amanda Leigh Bryan (Creator)
Institution
The University of North Carolina at Greensboro (UNCG )
Web Site: http://library.uncg.edu/
Advisor
Ben Clarke

Abstract: Everyday Movements of Errantry examines Édouard Glissant’s theory of errantry, defined as sacred wanderings which result in the development of relational identities, as a means of diminishing Othering practices that occur across various aspects of identity. Though scholars of Caribbean literature have long examined errantry in spatial practices, such as migration, exile, and displacement, my approach focuses on errantry perceived in embodied, everyday movements in the texts Midnight Robber by Nalo Hopkinson, A House for Mr. Biswas by V. S. Naipaul, The Dragon Can’t Dance by Earl Lovelace and Opal Palmer Adisa’s It Begins with Tears. Each text provides a different view of power relations, whether in power, subjugated, or fluctuating, which informs a character’s use of Othering practices. I analyze these texts’ micro-narratives to uncover everyday movements of errantry, which, I argue, inform characters’ identity constructions as members of various racial, classed, gendered, and sexual groups. I contend that as characters’ micro-movements bring them into contact with their Other, practices of Othering diminish as a character’s errantry increases. With the diminishment of Othering practices, characters develop relational identities, which are pluralistic in nature. I argue that these small-scale embodied movements of errantry operate to perform and to secure pluralistic identities for Caribbean subjects, influenced by both their root cultures and new interrelations with Others.

Additional Information

Publication
Dissertation
Language: English
Date: 2019
Keywords
Caribbean, Diminishing, Errantry, Identity, Movement, Othering
Subjects
Caribbean literature $y 20th century $x History and criticism
Identity (Philosophical concept) in literature
Other (Philosophy) in literature
Movement in literature

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