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Race, Ethnicity and Post-Colonial Studies
City University of New York (CUNY)
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Postcolonial Urban Vernacular Narratives In Contemporary Britain, Kathryn N. Moss
Postcolonial Urban Vernacular Narratives In Contemporary Britain, Kathryn N. Moss
Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects
This dissertation explores the ways in which three postcolonial writers in Britain (Samuel Selvon, James Kelman, and Suhayl Saadi) have used the vernacular as a medium for third person narrative fiction. In doing so, they have emphasized the legitimacy, beauty, and utility of languages sometimes considered debased and ugly even by their own speakers. I argue that this shift from the margins to the center of dialect or minority language in fiction is a radical—and relatively recent—one, beginning in the mid-twentieth century. By utilizing the vernacular as a medium for third person narratives, these authors are bringing non-prestige vernacular voices …