From Multiculturalism to Transculturalism: the Case for a Transition to ‘Constructive Deconstruction’ in Caribbean Diasporic Novels in Britain
Although Britain had advertised a change of colonial identity with its multicultural policies, the Windrush Scandal shed light on ongoing racial and ethnic determinisms, questioning the possibility of still adhering to a shared national identity. If Sam Selvon, Caryl Phillips, Andrea Levy and Zadie...
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| Publicado no: | URI:https://journals.openedition.org/ebc, |
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| Autor principal: | |
| Formato: | Article ou chapitre numérique |
| Idioma: | Anglais |
| Publicado em: |
Études britanniques contemporaines
2026
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| Acesso em linha: | Accès Université d'Orléans et IFPM Accès Université d'Orléans et IFPM |
| Resumo: | Although Britain had advertised a change of colonial identity with its multicultural policies, the Windrush Scandal shed light on ongoing racial and ethnic determinisms, questioning the possibility of still adhering to a shared national identity. If Sam Selvon, Caryl Phillips, Andrea Levy and Zadie Smith, members or descendants of the Windrush generation, foreground the paradoxical static nature of the multicultural transition in Britain and its dire consequences for minorities, they also seem to portray cultural unity as achievable in Moses Ascending (1975), Crossing the River (1993), Small Island (2004), White Teeth (2000) and NW (2012). This paper analyses how, through their deconstruction of the fixed nature of ‘racial purity’ as a criterion for national belonging, their appropriation of the ideals of the British realist novel to renegotiate minority selfhoods, and their showcasing of how migration revitalises British culture, these novelists point to transculturalism as a possible national way forward. |
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