Full Text Available
Note: Clicking the button above will open the full text document at the original institutional repository in a new window.
Representations of deviant black british womxnhood in bernadine evaristo's girl, woman, other (2019): exploring aesthetic and narrative deviance in portraits of black diasporic womanhood through experimental fiction
Bernardine Evaristo's 2019 novel, Girl, Woman, Other renders the portraits of twelve Black British womxn whose converging narratives span a distance of almost one hundred years. In this plurivocal experimental novel, the author's distinctive narrative style of fusion fiction, characterised by a free...
Saved in:
| Main Author: | |
|---|---|
| Other Authors: | |
| Format: | Thesis |
| Language: | English English |
| Published: |
Department of English Language and Literature
2025
|
| Subjects: | |
| Tags: |
No Tags, Be the first to tag this record!
|
| _version_ | 1867614387565494272 |
|---|---|
| access_status_str | Open Access |
| author | Mazibuko, Siphelele |
| author2 | Moji, Polo |
| author_browse | Mazibuko, Siphelele Moji, Polo |
| author_facet | Moji, Polo Mazibuko, Siphelele |
| author_sort | Mazibuko, Siphelele |
| collection | Thesis |
| description | Bernardine Evaristo's 2019 novel, Girl, Woman, Other renders the portraits of twelve Black British womxn whose converging narratives span a distance of almost one hundred years. In this plurivocal experimental novel, the author's distinctive narrative style of fusion fiction, characterised by a free-flowing, punctuationless, prose poetic structure reconstructs and reimagines these twelve diasporic narratives through the form of the text. While the content of the overlapping and intersecting narratives offers deviant portraits of Black Womxn who live in opposition to traditional images of Black diasporic womxnhood from gendered, racialised and sexualised perspectives, this thesis aims to argue for the form of the novel and its narrative strategies as not just necessary but inevitable for the kind of deviance it renders. Through close critical analysis of the form and content of Girl, Woman, Other as well as comparative exercises with relevant diasporic literature, the development toward this experimental sub-genre of fusion fiction is traced alongside the development of Evaristo's corpus populated by a world of deviant womxn. Finally, by way of the complexity of the twelve Black British characters and the dimension created by the fusion fiction, Girl, Woman, Other is presented as not simply a re-construction and re-imagination of Black British womaxnhood through experimental fiction but as an aesthetic practice of liberation for Black diasporic women. This thesis contributes to the recognition of experimental Black woman authors who utilize their work to redefine and recover their narratives from within the rich margins of diaspora. |
| format | Thesis |
| id | oai:open.uct.ac.za:11427/41768 |
| institution | University of Cape Town (South Africa) |
| language | English eng |
| last_indexed | 2026-06-10T12:51:14.372Z |
| license_str | Not specified — see source repository |
| provenance_str_mv | Harvested via OAI-PMH from UCTD — University of Cape Town Open Access Repository |
| publishDate | 2025 |
| publishDateRange | 2025 |
| publishDateSort | 2025 |
| publisher | Department of English Language and Literature |
| publisherStr | Department of English Language and Literature |
| record_format | dspace |
| source_str | UCTD — University of Cape Town Open Access Repository |
| spelling | oai:open.uct.ac.za:11427/41768 Representations of deviant black british womxnhood in bernadine evaristo's girl, woman, other (2019): exploring aesthetic and narrative deviance in portraits of black diasporic womanhood through experimental fiction Mazibuko, Siphelele Moji, Polo Ouma, Christopher Womanhood Bernardine Evaristo's 2019 novel, Girl, Woman, Other renders the portraits of twelve Black British womxn whose converging narratives span a distance of almost one hundred years. In this plurivocal experimental novel, the author's distinctive narrative style of fusion fiction, characterised by a free-flowing, punctuationless, prose poetic structure reconstructs and reimagines these twelve diasporic narratives through the form of the text. While the content of the overlapping and intersecting narratives offers deviant portraits of Black Womxn who live in opposition to traditional images of Black diasporic womxnhood from gendered, racialised and sexualised perspectives, this thesis aims to argue for the form of the novel and its narrative strategies as not just necessary but inevitable for the kind of deviance it renders. Through close critical analysis of the form and content of Girl, Woman, Other as well as comparative exercises with relevant diasporic literature, the development toward this experimental sub-genre of fusion fiction is traced alongside the development of Evaristo's corpus populated by a world of deviant womxn. Finally, by way of the complexity of the twelve Black British characters and the dimension created by the fusion fiction, Girl, Woman, Other is presented as not simply a re-construction and re-imagination of Black British womaxnhood through experimental fiction but as an aesthetic practice of liberation for Black diasporic women. This thesis contributes to the recognition of experimental Black woman authors who utilize their work to redefine and recover their narratives from within the rich margins of diaspora. 2025-09-11T11:19:18Z 2025-09-11T11:19:18Z 2025 2025-09-11T10:54:41Z Thesis / Dissertation Masters Masters http://hdl.handle.net/11427/41768 en eng application/pdf Department of English Language and Literature Faculty of Humanities University of Cape Town |
| spellingShingle | Womanhood Mazibuko, Siphelele Representations of deviant black british womxnhood in bernadine evaristo's girl, woman, other (2019): exploring aesthetic and narrative deviance in portraits of black diasporic womanhood through experimental fiction |
| thesis_degree_str | Master's |
| title | Representations of deviant black british womxnhood in bernadine evaristo's girl, woman, other (2019): exploring aesthetic and narrative deviance in portraits of black diasporic womanhood through experimental fiction |
| title_full | Representations of deviant black british womxnhood in bernadine evaristo's girl, woman, other (2019): exploring aesthetic and narrative deviance in portraits of black diasporic womanhood through experimental fiction |
| title_fullStr | Representations of deviant black british womxnhood in bernadine evaristo's girl, woman, other (2019): exploring aesthetic and narrative deviance in portraits of black diasporic womanhood through experimental fiction |
| title_full_unstemmed | Representations of deviant black british womxnhood in bernadine evaristo's girl, woman, other (2019): exploring aesthetic and narrative deviance in portraits of black diasporic womanhood through experimental fiction |
| title_short | Representations of deviant black british womxnhood in bernadine evaristo's girl, woman, other (2019): exploring aesthetic and narrative deviance in portraits of black diasporic womanhood through experimental fiction |
| title_sort | representations of deviant black british womxnhood in bernadine evaristo s girl woman other 2019 exploring aesthetic and narrative deviance in portraits of black diasporic womanhood through experimental fiction |
| topic | Womanhood |
| url | http://hdl.handle.net/11427/41768 |
| work_keys_str_mv | AT mazibukosiphelele representationsofdeviantblackbritishwomxnhoodinbernadineevaristosgirlwomanother2019exploringaestheticandnarrativedevianceinportraitsofblackdiasporicwomanhoodthroughexperimentalfiction |