Writing Complexity Into Invisibility: Intersectional Identity and Experience in the Novel ‘Girl, Woman, Other’ (2019)
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2022-08-19
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en
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This thesis examines the 2019 novel Girl, Woman, Other by Bernardine Evaristo through the lens of intersectional theory. It specifically researches how Girl, Woman, Other represent its characters’ identities and experiences as intersecting. It looks at the theory of intersectionality – history, definition, conflicts – and synthesises a framework for literary analysis. It then sets out to analyse both the form of the novel, by examining its style, structure and narration, and uses this framework to analyse the contents of the novel, by doing an in-depth analysis of two of the book’s characters. It concludes that the form of the novel is reflective of the intersectional experience while deepening the reader’s empathy and emphasising the characters’ interconnectivity, variety, and complexity; and that the characters are not only affected by marginalisation, but they marginalise others too, demonstrating their complexity and right to be individuals, instead of simply representations of Black women.
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Faculteit der Letteren