Self-Reflexivity and Generic Change: A Case Study of Bernardine Evaristo's Soul Tourists (2005)

Description

In this paper, I will discuss the results of my preliminary research on the project “Self-Reflexivity and Generic Change in 21st-Century Black British Women’s Literature”, funded by the Research Foundation-Flanders (FWO) and directed by Prof. Janine Hauthal (VUB). The project aims to trace self-reflexivity as a catalyst for generic change in contemporary fiction written by women of African and African-Caribbean descent. In doing so, we will revise the predominant theories of metafiction, which all too often have focused on dissociated self-reflexivity from realism and political engagement. Instead, I follow Sarah Upstone in theorizing that self-reflexivity in Black British writing can function as “a strategy in the service of identity politics” (Upstone 2015). Through the incorporation of postcolonial and feminist studies, this research project hopes to gain a better understanding of the political, cultural, and aesthetic functions of self-reflexive writing in and beyond the Black British field.
Concretely, my paper illustrates the dynamic nature of genre in Black British self-reflexive writing with a case study of Bernardine Evaristo’s Soul Tourists, which has been categorized by reviewers and scholars as a travel novel that highlights the whitewashing of European history. After a brief discussion of the novel’s limited reception, I explore how aesthetic, political and cultural functions of self-reflexivity are intertwined. Additionally, I discuss how the travel novel is innovated by Evaristo’s incorporation of verse, icons, scripts and non-fictional fragments and tie this back to Soul Tourists’ critical reception.

Period	24 Sep 2022
Event title	8th Biennial Afroeuropeans Network Conference: “Intersectional Challenges in Afroeuropean Communities”
Event type	Conference
Conference number	8
Location	Brussels, Belgium
Degree of Recognition	International