Full Text Available

Note: Clicking the button above will open the full text document at the original institutional repository in a new window.

From historical fiction to historiographic metafiction: Lawrence Hill’s the book of negroes as deviant Literature

Scholars have debated the classification of the African American literature as a plain historic text, which further stimulates the controversy between history and literature. It is on this presumption that this paper critically explored Lawrence Hills’ The Book of Negroes, more as a subversive text,...

Full description

Saved in:
Bibliographic Details
Format: Article
Published: 2023
Subjects:
Tags: Add Tag
No Tags, Be the first to tag this record!

MARC

LEADER 00000njm a2000000a 4500
001 oai:repository.ui.edu.ng:123456789/9508
042 |a dc 
720 |a Akinsete, C. T.  |e author 
260 |c 2023 
520 |a Scholars have debated the classification of the African American literature as a plain historic text, which further stimulates the controversy between history and literature. It is on this presumption that this paper critically explored Lawrence Hills’ The Book of Negroes, more as a subversive text, which is constructively predisposed to certain postmodern stylistic techniques. While amplifying obtrusive matters that still affect the black race in contemporary American society, it is observed that Hill employs Historiographic Metafiction to creatively reconceptualise the narrative of African American slave history. By implication, the fictional mode in The Book of Negroes deconstructs a fixed categorisation of historical hermeneutics of African American slave narratives, as limited to the issues of slavery, captivity, racism, oppression, and so on. While using qualitative approach as methodology, Jacques Derrida’s Deconstruction served as theoretical framework, complemented by Linda Hutcheon’s conception of historiographic metafiction. As a stylistic import, this paper submits that historiographic metafiction is substantiated as a counterdiscourse against the lopsided criticism that deprecates black history and literary artistry as immaterial. With reference to its literary originality, The Book of Negroes is therefore categorised as a deviant form of black writing in contemporary times. 
024 8 |a ui_art_akinsete_from_2023 
024 8 |a Lagos Notes and Records 29(1), pp. 17-36 
024 8 |a http://ir.library.ui.edu.ng/handle/123456789/9508 
653 |a Historiographic metafiction 
653 |a African American literature 
653 |a Book of Negroes 
653 |a Strategic motifs 
653 |a Night work 
245 0 0 |a From historical fiction to historiographic metafiction: Lawrence Hill’s the book of negroes as deviant Literature