Department of English and American Studies English Language and Literature

2.2.2 Caryl Phillips, Andrea Levy and Michelle Cliff as Post-Colonial Writers 92.3 National Consciousness and Political Awakening in an Era of Globalisation 11 2.7 Belonging: Myth of Eng

Masaryk University Faculty of Arts

Department of English and American Studies

English Language and Literature

Linda Cinková

West Indian Experience in Britain in the Second Half of the

Twentieth Century: Bittersweet Homecoming

Supervisor: Prof Mgr Milada Franková,CSc.,M.A.

2010

I declare that I have worked on this thesis independently, using only the primary and secondary sources listed in the bibliography.

………

I would like to thank prof Franková for her advice and kind

encouragement.

2.2.2 Caryl Phillips, Andrea Levy and Michelle Cliff as Post-Colonial Writers 9

2.3 National Consciousness and Political Awakening in an Era of Globalisation 11

2.7 Belonging: Myth of England as the ´Mother Country´, Hybridity and Generations 16 2.8 British National Identity, European and Caribbean Identities 17

3.1 Andrea Levy, Small Island: Loyal West Indians with a British Passport: Bittersweet Homecoming 22

3.1.1 Prejudice, Stereotype, Racism and Cultural Imperialism 23

3.2 Andrea Levy, Fruit of the Lemon: Second-Generation, Born and Bred in Britain 37

3.2.1 Racism, Discrimination and Prejudice 37 3.2.2 Caribbean and British Identities 41

Paradoxes 48

4.1.3 Caribbean Artistic Expression Interwoven with Hybridity 57 4.1.4 Rootedness and Rootlessness through Generations 59

4.1.6 The Fusion of British, Caribbean and European Identities: Europe's Multicultural Heritage, Deconstruction of British Identity and European Myth of Homogeneity 65 4.1.7 Cultural Imperialism, Prejudice and Stereotyping 73 4.1.8 Europe's Own Sense of History: the Glorious Past 74

4.2 The High Anxiety of Belonging: In the Falling Snow, Foreigners, The Final Passage 76

4.2.2 European, British and Caribbean Identities, Hybridity 83 4.2.3 Discrimination, Prejudice and Stereotypes 84

4.2.5 Three Generations of West Indians in Britain 88

91

5.4.1 Diverse, Hybrid Selves and Diluted Concept of Beauty: Now and Then 98 5.4.2 Imposed Identity and Lighter Skin 101

Bibliography 108

1 Introduction

In the aftermath of World War II, significant changes blew

through the ashes of the disintegrating British

Empire The accelerated pace of social change required British society

to be re-defined much like the postwar landscape had to be

reconstructed History, culture and identity were all challenged and strained by a new world order and immigration from the former

colonies My primary goal in this thesis is to analyze the effects of immigration from the former British Empire, specifically focusing on West Indian immigration to Britain, and how it contributed to this re-evaluation and re-definition of British society

Thus my main concentration is on the experience of West Indiannewcomers who offer an interesting perspective of Britain - andEurope - through a critical lens unaccustomed to Britishreality Certain aspects of the West Indian experience in Britain wereconfined solely to the settlers coming from the former Commonwealthwho had to reconcile with the ideological illusion of Britain as their'mother country' that was willing to embrace them only in theirrespective homelands or at times of war when WestIndians voluntarily participated in the RAF in WW II The immigrationshaped the contours of contemporary Britain and in that process,several concepts have been re-defined as well

A comparative and thematic analysis of the chosen works byMichelle Cliff, Andrea Levy and Caryl Phillips will expose differentaspects of the West Indian experience in Britain compared withsecondary sources drawing on sociological, political, cultural andanthropological research in order to demonstrate how the texts reflectthe British society, West Indians in the twentieth century Britain andoverall change However, it would be incomplete to omit theCaribbean from the analysis and as such, certain aspects of Caribbeanhistory, culture and identities had to be mentioned in order tounderstand West Indian experience of Britain

Before the analysis, a brief exposition of concepts and themes isbriefly explained The selected concepts and themes are quitenumerous, yet they encapsulate the different facets of collective andpersonal experience (which is in no way totalising nor essentialisingbut suggests certain transcendence of commonexperience), that cross-cut and interweave in many aspects Theseparallels will be exposed in order to provide the most completeanalysis possible

In Cliff's chapter, the main focus is on historical paradoxes,'silenced' history and national identity, in Levy's chapter, the primaryfocus turns to discrimination and in Phillips' chapter, the notionsrelevant to belonging and exile are examined While all three authors

write about experiencing Britain from an etic perspective, certainconcepts and themes are analyzed recurrently Since three generations

of post-Empire Windrush West Indians have lived in Britain, the

comparison of how the selected concepts and themes unfoldthroughout the second half of the twentieth century will be drawn

To conclude, there are two important aspects that have beeninfluential in shaping the post-colonial society in the latter half of thecentury - globalization (altogether with neo-colonialism) andmulticulturalism Both have been quite topical with respect to thecurrent development of Britain and Europe since many countries havebeen questioning their national and European identities The present-day Europe rather suggests that West Indians are rather assimilated

by now, firmly rooted in the British society The social change is fastand efficient transportation makes movement relatively quick andeasy

West Indian experience in Britain can be linked to diasporasthroughout the world but due to the shared history of the BritishEmpire, the West Indies' special relationship with Britain cannot beoverlooked - and examining literature by West Indian authors reveals

as much about Caribbean identities as it does about Britain Thewriters engage in writing in order to fight prejudice, discriminationand stereotype while they expose hypocrisy of the mainstream society

Such writing gives space to intercultural interaction and thus it is aninteresting journey that involves three continents, multiple identitiesand hybrid Britishness As it will be argued, the knowledge and pride

of cultural roots help the reconciliation with the British society

While the question of race is becoming rather obsolete, withbinary oppositions´ gradual erosion, new identities are appearingwhile the old ones become more complex

The socio-political context is critical for deeper understanding ofcontemporary Britain As I will argue, the change in representationand discrimination practices reflects how social constructs changedtheir conceptual content in Britain over the course of several decades.Depicted concepts are placed in the cultural context and several ofthem must be viewed in close connection to each other

2 Concepts and Themes

The thesis' main aim is to establish recurring themes of Caribbean experience in Britain in the second half of the twentiethcentury While the Caribbean area is extremely diverse in manyrespects, many West Indians in Britain had very similar experiences as

Afro-a result of Afro-a sociAfro-al climAfro-ate thAfro-at put stress on differentiAfro-ation Afro-among

people on the basis of their skin colour Such shared experience

included overt and covert racism, discrimination, burgeoning andstrengthening of prejudices and stereotypes (often based on myth orpopular representation) From a migrant´s perspective, such sharedexperience involved negotiation and re-definition of identity, roots,belonging, negotiation of approach to the new country – whether itwas assimilation, integration or more recent acknowledgement ofhybridity and generational change For historical reasons, I find itimperative to draw attention to postcoloniality as it clarifies manyaspects of West Indian experience in post-colonial Britain As a result

of the society's change, it is relevant to attempt to construct'imaginary' borders around the British and European identitiesbecause of the gradual preference for cultural racism in Britain Lastly,the recurring theme of disillusion with Britain as the 'mother country'who failed its West Indian settlers is a theme of great importance since

it was a culturally powerful and disheartening experience, often

undertaken in literature by authors of Caribbean origin.

The chosen concepts and themes are based on the novels byCliff, Levy and Phillips and secondary sources are applied in order toanalyze and deconstruct the recurring experiences and establish thelink between the novels and the theoretical approaches to the conceptsand themes

In this work, I use the term West Indian interchangeably withAfro-Caribbean (even though the West Indies are a multiracial society,most settlers to Britain were predominantly from Jamaica andBarbados and the population there is mostly of African stock, Hiro viii)

2.1 Historical Overview

The economy of colonial West Indies was geared towardsproviding goods for the British Empire, however, without the countryreceiving adequate profits As a result, the area has beenunderdeveloped and lacking investment Politically, Jamaica wasgranted self-government in 1948 and independence in 1962 but theindependence did not stop West Indians from leaving the country asthe economy's long-lasting plunge forced many West Indians tomigrate outside the country Legally, those who came to the UK hadfew entrance problems since they were coming from the formerEmpire and Britain was eager to add to its post-war workforce whichwas further enabled by the British Nationality Act of 1948 Most West

Indians who came between 1955-64 were motivated by several factors

- among them were the push factors: the lack of opportunities at home,among the pull factors were the difficulty to enter the US due to theMcCarren-Walter Act of 1952, historical connection to Britain andBritain's labour shortage Even though Britain was encouraging themigration, the general agreement has it that they were not verywelcome (Pilkington 33-9) For a long time after the Second World War,Britain was trying to impose restrictions on immigration and on theother hand combat racial disadvantage and integrate people who hadcome to Britain (Pilkington 9)

2.2 The Post-Colonial Question

The term ´post-colonial´ seems to indicate that the colonialhistory is strictly a matter of the past, that the world has dealt with theissues the colonial legacy had left behind Even though thedecolonization took place decades ago, the history has had a deepimpact on the demographics and culture of the Caribbean and Britainand continues to shape the population of the Caribbean and itsdiaspora

The themes of exile and migration are often treated in the works

of Caribbean writers and the themes naturally stem from the intricate

history of the area As Caryl Phillips puts it in his book A New World Order:

Politically, culturally and linguistically, the Caribbean artist

is a special kind of migration Wherever one happens to be

in the Caribbean, at least two or more continents andcultures have already provided the bedrock upon whichone's identity has been forged It is a birthright thatembraces Europe, Africa and Asia (131)

It is worth noting that about three quarters of the people living in theworld today have had their lives shaped by the experience ofcolonialism (Ashcroft, Griffiths, and Tiffin 1) Thus the term post-colonial absorbs all the influence that colonization has had on cultureuntil the present (ibid., 2)

The end of colonialism brought new diasporas and the globalisedworld enabled the idea of diaspora to become reality as spatiallyseparated communities could identify with each other (Gilroy, "RouteWork: the Black Atlantic and the Politics of Exile" 20) In fall 2009,Plaza published a study on "transnational identity" maintenance viathe Internet His research of the content of websites constructed bysecond-generation West Indians in the United States, Canada andGreat Britain shows that many second generation students ofCaribbean origin choose to live in a transnational culture in whichethnicity and cultural identity are "fluid, situational and volitional."This arguments supports the claims of many scholars such as

Anzaldúa (1995), Hall (1996), Rosaldo (1989), and Nagel (1994) who

"work within a postmodernist framework, theorize identity as hybrid,dynamic, fluid, and multi-layered." They argue against essentialistnotions of identity as fixed and bounded (qtd in Plaza) AngelaMcRobbie asserts as well that cultural studies tend to prefer an anti-essentialist approach to the study of race or sexuality since "there aremany ways of being black or a woman" (37) Nevertheless,McRobbie points out to the lack of description of these differentidentities as well as frameworks that would allow to pursue them(McRobbie 37) The notion of rigid boundaries between cultures andcultural identities becomes less clear The concept of transnationalism

is not new, however, only recently it gained in popularity and itdescribes well the present tendencies:

Transnationalism is defined as the process by whichimmigrants forge and sustain multistranded socialrelations that link together their societies of origin andsettlement through the creation of cross-border, and inter-continental networks (Glick-Shiller 1998; Portes 1999;Vertovec 1999; & Basch et al 1994) Althoughtransnationalism is not a new phenomenon, it has beenfacilitated more recently by space and time compressingtechnologies which include telephone, email, and relatively

easy low cost long-distance travel across borders (Plaza)

It is not surprising then that many postcolonial novels, engaged inthemes of exile and migration, bring about the theme of nationalconsciousness which is crucial for identity formation Since theprocess of de-colonization began, the anti-colonial writer fromMartinique, Frantz Fanon, argued for a need of a nationalconsciousness as a means of overcoming the legacy of colonialism(Richards) On the personal level, internal decolonization had tohappen as well, whether it was via reinvention of Africa, Christianity

or Rastafarianism (C Hall 69)

The novels I am going to discuss belong to the post-colonial timeframework In this thesis, the identity formation is understood to behybrid and dynamic However, it is important to remember works ofsocial scientists such as Frantz Fanon In his research, he used themethod of psychoanalysis to show the inferiority complex thecolonizers had managed to instill in the (un)conscious mind of the

colonized He published his research in his book Black Skin, White Masks in 1952 As such, the colonized will try to imitate the culture of

the colonizer because it is projected as more sophisticated anddesirable The colonized's indigenous culture had been denigratedthrough the growth of the British Empire, the linguistic conquest ofEnglish and at the unconscious level, constructed values such as

civilization or humanity that were naturalized and this naturalization,conversely, helped to create categories of "primitive", savagery ornative, standing in binary opposition to civilization and humanity Thecultural denigration, a conscious and unconscious oppression, does notonly affect the culture, but it also has an influence on the personalityand the perception of the self (Ashcroft, Griffiths, and Tiffin 3; 9).Since European cultures have been obsessed with belief in continualprogress since the Enlightenment, it was easy to justify the attempt toreform the indigenous culture, to make the world a better place.Darwin's impact on the evolution of humans has been extended tocultures as well and Lewis Henry Morgan, a 19th centuryanthropologist, came up with a theory on social evolution whichcontains three stages: savagery, barbarism and civilization However,the etic perspective, ethnocentrism and the imposed model of thesuperior Western culture have helped the justification of colonialism,imperialism and racism; making it seem an inevitable course in historywhere the fittest cultures survive and the weak ones have to perish via

a natural order

2.2.1 Legacy of Colonialism

When the British Empire had disintegrated, Britain has become apost-colonial nation Britain has lost its white identities "rooted in asense of superiority derived from the power exercised over racialised

others" (C Hall 67) The European history seen from a Europeanperspective may lack objectivity since some imperial pasts can berepressed or represented in a favourable fashion The reason whyminority writers in Britain are important is their providing for newfresh perspectives of the past, the present and the future The worldafter the disintegration of the Soviet Union and the way we describe ithas also dramatically changed The colonization seems to be strictlyconfined to the deep past while the construction of New Europe isbeing paid most attention to Yet the British imperial history is present

in everyday life in Britain - names of the streets, sugar in tea, coffee,cocoa, the mango chutney, the memorials, the public monuments andstill the colonial past seems to be rather dismissed as "manyEuropeans, concerned to forget that past, look to a future whichfocuses on Europe ." (C Hall 66) Intrinsically, the British post-nation is ethnically varied, inclusive and culturally diverse (ibid., 69)

2.2.2 Caryl Phillips, Andrea Levy and Michelle Cliff as

Post-Colonial Writers

The post-colonial period brought national and culturalawakening which is reflected in the works discussed The nationalconsciousness and embracing of one's cultural roots are importantaspects that have helped the post-colonial reconciliation Acceptingand embracing one's cultural roots or racial belonging (and pride) help

the development of transnationalism and feeling of belonging in theBritish society instead of dwelling on its margins.

The issues Caryl Phillips and Andrea Levy are touching upon intheir writings are slightly different from those of Cliff's since Phillipsand Levy are more focused on recent experiences of people ofCaribbean descent in Britain Cliff's themes are connected to thedecolonization era and the impact it had on people living in Britain andthe former Empire

Caryl Phillips's (1958) ancestors came from Africa yet he wasborn in the Caribbean He was brought up in Great Britain andcurrently lives in New York City His works of fiction and nonfictionmore than often focus on the ever-changing notions of home, identityand belonging As he describes his first visit to sub-Saharan Africa in

his collection of essays on belonging, A New World Order, it is clear

that the dynamic and hybrid qualities of identity are interwoven in hisdiscourse since the beginning, "I am thirty-two I recognise the place, Ifeel at home here, but I don't belong I am of, and not of, this place"(1)

Andrea Levy (1956) is British and was born in London to

Jamaican parents who immigrated to England on the Empire Windrush

in 1948 Her background provided her with ambivalence and confusion

as she explains, "I want to belong to anywhere but this place where I

am made to feel like an outsider - not welcome, definitely not welcome

at all" (Levy, “This Is My England”) She addresses the complexities ofidentity in her writing because "any history book will show thatEngland has never been an exclusive club, but rather a hybrid nation.The effects of the British Empire were personal as well as political.And as the sun has finally set on the Empire, we are now having toface up to all of these realities" (ibid.)

West Indians´ roots and history are not firmly located in oneparticular area which means that maintaining a strong identificationwith and connection to 'home' is problematic The definition of homeloses its distinct qualities (Thompson 122) Even though Phillips andLevy have not actually experienced colonialism and devote a lot ofspace to Britain in their writings, their lives and writings are still verymuch influenced by the history of it

Michelle Cliff (1946) is a Jamaican-American writer, mostly

known for her novels Abeng and No Telephone to Heaven In her work

she often devotes attention to issues of construction and borders ofsocially-conditioned identity

Postcolonialism is closely linked to other concepts such asethnicity, race, nationalism, home and location In the followinganalysis of the novels, much attention will be paid to how theseconcepts shape and impact identity and its formation

2.3 National Consciousness and Political Awakening in an Era of Globalisation

According to Frantz Fanon, the national consciousness ornationalism is a stage that possibly leads to (political) awakening andshould not be seen as a final step because the next stage istransnationalism or internationalism which "does not forsake theconcern of local populations, but rather recognizes the systemicrelationship of national causes to global capitalism" (Richards) Moreimportantly, the national consciousness may help to "decolonize theminds" Nevertheless, there is one aspect of identity politics (as, forexample, diaspora politics) - identity politics run the danger ofessentialising cultures and hardening ethnic boundaries (Smith 163)

Globalization has the important impact on societies all over theworld, Pilkington defines it as a tendency to undermine tradition whilepeople become acquainted with other ways of living which results in

an increased reflexivity with regards to the collective identities (197)and it is possible to discern a certain tendency to view diversity asvery positive One of the consequences of a more globalised world

is the Western consumption of otherness Such consumption has animpact on the ´others´ whose products and supposed lifestyles aredevoured and the consequences are dual – it is possible to approachthe West in certain areas (clothing, housing, etc.) and to “internalizethe West´s exotic image of oneself” (Classen and Howes 187)

2.4 Race, Ethnicity and Identity

Race is used to distinguish among people using physical markerssuch as skin pigmentation, hair texture and facial features Ethnicity isapplied to distinguish among people using cultural markers such aslanguage, religion and shared customs Ethnicity in this sensedistinguishes key social groups (Pilkington 2)

It is agreed upon in general that the idea of race has nointellectual credibility Even though it uses physical markers, race

stays a concept that socially defines people As the general agreement

has it, people should not be treated differently on the basis of race(ibid., 3) Humans are psychologically conditioned to categorizeevents, objects and other humans and as such, race is just anothercategory – (Bolaffi et al 239) Therefore race is just a category whosemanipulation had sinister historical consequences Such psychologicalconditioning also influences the establishing of one´s “essentialidentity” when diversity and similarity are identified comparatively(ibid., 239)

Identity is a key issue on the political or personal level Due tothe rapid change, national identities lost their strength and identitieshave been gradually recognized as multiple – hybrid or syncretic(Rattansi and Phoenix qtd in ibid 141)

2.5 Racism, Discrimination and End of Binary Oppositions

Stuart Hall views the discourse as the division between the

"West" (an idea or a concept of a type of society which is developed,industrialized, urbanized, capitalist, secular and modern; a conceptwhich is used to classify other societies that are then the "Rest" (“The

West and the Rest” 277), Gilroy speaks of cultural racism (There Ain´t

No Black in the Union Jack 66), many other authors forward the term

cultural imperialism and Said has coined the term Orientalism whichfocuses on the opposition of West/Europe (familiar) and the East(strange) Cultural difference transcends into the biological differences

as well since we associate certain characteristics with both culturaland biological markers

The difference between racism and racial discrimination resides

in the ascription of superiority or inferiority to groups of the formerand treatment of someone less favorably of the latter on the basis ofgroup membership, determined by skin colour, ´race´, national or

ethnic origin (Bolaffi et al 260) At present, the concept of race has

vanished from the terminology used by sociology or policy makers(Pilkington 18) As such, race is a very problematic concept It is alsonoteworthy to remember that racial (or ethnic) expressions arefortuitous and temporary (Cohen and Kennedy 109) – while WestIndians of Afro-Caribbean descent had to endure outright hostility in

the postwar period, their position of the foreign intruder threateningthe British national identity has been taken over by fear of militantfundamentalist Islam which identified the new predominant enemysince the eighties (Ratcliffe 114) and Islam became the “archetypalemblem of Otherness” (Castles and Davidson 80) which clearlyestablishes the social constructivism and shift from defining the ´Other

´ on the basis of skin colour to creating relevant cultural criteria.Modood states that the post-war period used mainly "racial dualism"framework to describe relationships, and the primary emphasis was onthe skin colour Social scientists used this framework to explain thesocial differences between 'White' and 'Black' (qtd Pilkington 1) Thisframework is not applicable nowadays and Stuart Hall has proposedthe term 'cultural turn' which involves deconstruction of the centralcategories (White and Black), recognition of diversity in the majoritygroup and emphasis on individual's multiple and shifting identities(qtd in ibid., 2) Currently, the framework of 'racial disadvantage andethnic diversity' is applied

2.6 Myth, Prejudice, Stereotype and Sexuality

Myths are generally “ostensibly explanatory or historical innature” and Freud saw them as conscious manifestations of fantasiesand desires of the unconscious (Bolaffi et al 190) Myths are importantfor group cohesion and national identity (ibid., 191) The importance

and presence of myths will be shown in the discourse Britain hasembarked upon to signify and delineate British identity in the postwarperiod.

Prejudice signifies pre-judgment and it is generally associatedwith “inflexibility, dogmatism and narrow-mindedness”; prejudicecontains cognitive (beliefs and stereotypes) and affective dimensions(active dislike and aversion), ibid., 228) Prejudice is often explained

by the identification with the aggressor (postulated by Anna Freud in1936) and self-fulfilling prophecies while T W Adorno asserted theneed of certain types of personalities to harbour prejudice (Bolaffi et

al 140) Such feelings of racism and consequent forms of racial andethnic prejudice are believed to be located in the unconscious (ibid.,321) Prejudice and actions it provoked had a long-term impact ondiscriminatory treatment of West Indians in Britain Blumer definesfour dimensions of race prejudice, one of them is “a feeling ofproprietary claim to certain areas of privilege and advantages” (112)which then leads to housing and job discrimination and segregation –practices which will be depicted in the analysis as they are crucial tothe West Indians´ experience of Britain

Stereotypes are closely linked to prejudice since they are itsmechanism and are considered by social psychologists as very difficult

to eradicate, with restructured education seen as the only way to

change them (Snyder 30) Prejudice and discrimination “magnify thedangers of stereotyping” because of them being based on naturallaziness which is extended by “tenuous generalization” (Enteman 10).Stereotyping is a means of categorising and ordering but if one has astereotyped way of thinking about certain groups, such processinvolves remembering selective memories that fit the stereotype andignoring those which resist it (Snyder 33)

Sexuality is treated in this subchapter because of themanipulation of popular myths and beliefs and its influence ontreatment of West Indians in Britain – ideological representationsinduce a need to negotiate ideological presuppositions in the publicand private sphere (Cameron and Kulick 147) In the times of theBritish Empire, nationalism came to be seen as a synonym for racialpurity and virility (Dean 8) while racism against blacks had relied onmany stereotypes or myths from the past, some based on sexuality:

"The Black body is situated as a sign of particular cultural and politicalmeanings in the Diaspora" (Brand 35) A hostile rejection and fears ofracial impurity in the postwar period mellowed into the exoticisationand eroticisation of the ´Other´ later on: "On one hand 'Others' aresexualized, and on the other, declared sexually taboo" (NederveenPieterse 172) The connection between sexual repression and powerwas described also by Foucault (ibid., 175) and has various

representations in history (a system of slavery in the US, Nazism etc.,ibid 175) Baudrillard finds that blacks and women are sexualised forthe same reasons - repression of the body and exploitation (137) Suchmythical and stereotypical representation produced more prejudiceand is inherent in the experience of discrimination in Britain.

2.7 Belonging: Myth of England as the ´Mother Country´, Hybridity and Generations

Belonging is a recurring theme of the diaspora in general andone of the crucial themes in the Caribbean literature after the SecondWorld War due to the myth of England as the 'mother country', a mythwhich was instilled in the Caribbean on many institutional levels (andstems from the glory days of the British Empire) and whose exposedlie meant anxiety and disillusion for those who decided to move toBritain and who saw it as a move to a geographically different territorywhich would, nevertheless, feel as ´home´ as well Such process ofmigration and impossibility of return for some caused certainrootlessness, especially in the first generation, while embracing adiverse cultural heritage extended to a certain hybridity andtransnationalism which is more typical of subsequent generations thatbenefited from the possibility of easier re-connection with the

ancestral land in a globalized era Hybridity or cultural syncretism is arelatively new concept and views identity as more "decentred,ambivalent, contradictory, provisional, contextual and de-essentialized"(Bolaffi et al 142) which is concurrent with the deconstruction ofbinary oppositions.

The second generation of Britons of West Indian origin will also

be touched upon Some view second generation as existing betweentwo cultures (Bolaffi et al 301) As such, the second generation alsoendured some hostility but in a context of more 'entitled' belongingsince they were born and bred in Britain As a reaction to this, secondgeneration managed to redefine representation and the notion of what

it means to be British which Stuart Hall calls 'cultural diaspora-ization'

because "there can, therefore, be no simple 'return' or 'recovery' of theancestral past which is not re-experienced through the categories ofthe present " ("New Ethnicities" 108)

2.8 British National Identity, European and Caribbean Identities

National identity is one of the many identities one person canhave and it is a valued part of an individual's identity even though itsvalue has been diminishing under the influence of globalization.National identity is closely linked to the political community As aresult of the abovementioned complexities, national identity's corecharacteristics had to change after the Second World War Due to the

major changes after World Wars I and II (that are connected toglobalization and the need for global cooperation on many levels),European states have been successful in forging a continental identity,hoping for a stronger position in the world and a more efficienteconomic cooperation Britain has been historically adamant about notdefining itself as a European state, however, the recognition ofsignificance of Europe is generally agreed upon (Parekh 56).

Miller (1995) defines national identity by five core featureswhich distinguish it from other collective identities:

a shared belief that members 'belong together'; aperception that this association stems from a long history

of living together which it is envisaged will continue intothe future; a recognition that the community is 'active' andtakes decisions; an acknowledgement that 'it is connected

to a particular territory'; and the existence of a 'commonpublic culture' which marks it off from other communities.(qtd in Pilkington 175)

While Britain experienced its waves of hostility towards newcomersafter the Second World War, it is important to note that the Britishhave never been culturally homogeneous, or, in Stuart Hall´sdefinition, cultural communities “are without exception ethnicallyhybrid - the product of conquests, absorptions of one people by

another" (qtd in Pilkington 178)

The post-war period has not been marked by migration only assignificant economic changes were taking place The shrinkage of thegeographical and political power contributed to the general feeling ofthreat which could be internal or external Territorial and politicalintegrity seemed vulnerable and all this led to confusion,disorientation and direction-lessness (Parekh 65) The traditionalsources of national identity and pride (the empire, social cohesion,stable democratic institutions, industrial leadership of the world,superiority to the rest of Europe and political unity) were no longerwholly applicable (Parekh 66)

National identity crisis happened when Britain's economy was indecline, coupled with low industrial productivity and unfavourablebalance payment Politically, Britain was pressured to join theEuropean Community and all of these factors created a very realidentity crisis (Parekh 66)

In 1963, the British politician Enoch Powell tried to define thenational identity, and among the characteristics he mentioned was thatBritain was essentially an individualist society, a country with an

"ethnic and prepolitical unity" whose geography and history enabledBritain to develop into an island that was distinctively singular andunattached also because Britain had "her face to the oceans, her back

to Europe" (ibid., 67) Phrases like "Island Race' or 'Bulldog Breed'depict the representation of a nation in terms which are

simultaneously biological and cultural (Gilroy, There Ain't No Black in the Union Jack 44).

Margaret Thatcher was not entirely opposed to Powell'sinterpretation But while Powell would repatriate ethnic minorities ortreat them as second-class citizens, she believed they should beassimilated, biologically and culturally, into the nation She, too, sawBritain as a part of Europe due to common historical ties ofChristianity, common history of the Roman Empire, common ancestorssuch as Celts, Saxons, Normans and Danes, language, literature, arts,architecture and music; yet she did not see Britain as a Europeancountry and as such, close institutional ties with Europe were to beavoided (Parekh 67)

Tony Blair came up with a moderate version of Thatcherism He,too, stressed individualism but also social justice which, values-wise,brings Britain closer to Europe Britain has had a long tradition ofhospitality and as such should be able to successfully integrate itsimmigrants (ibid., 68)

Perhaps it will not come as a surprise that the following PMGordon Brown put Britishness on the top of his agenda According tohim, the values that form the British national consciousness are

tolerance, fairness and enterprise Multiculturalism is hailed as asuccessful component of the British society today, yet the commitment

to it is questionable and nationalist and assimilation supporters morethan often backlash (ibid., 69)

The Parekh report (2000) was organized in order to analyze thecurrent state of Britain and propose ways and measures on how todeal with racial disadvantage and how to enable Britain to become atruly "vibrant multicultural society" (Pilkington 265)

The Parekh report concluded that six tasks must be tackledurgently and among them was the need to “rethink the national storyand national identity” and recognize Britain as composed of 'majority'and 'minority' communities which are diverse and changing, the need

to maintain shared values and social cohesion, too address and removeall forms of racism, the need to reduce economic inequalities and build

a pluralist human rights culture (ibid., 265)

The hybrid character of the British nation has been based ondifferent social constructs throughout history since the 'Other' is inessence a shifting category - the British expulsed throughout history

"former French allies, Jews, Lombards, Hansards, Flemings, Calvinists,Catholics, Spanish agents, continental revolutionaries, Jews (again),Germans, Romanies, Bolsheviks, black Commonwealth citizens, illegal,overstayers " and such antagonism was fuelled by fears of eroding

national security, religious uniformity, economy, ideological rigidity,cultural distinctiveness or racial purity (R Cohen 87) From thisperspective it seems that as long as Britain remains antagonistictowards diversity, the common enemy 'Other' will keep appearing invarious disguise However, Britain seems to be willing to celebratediversity on many levels which does not concur with eradication ofprejudice although the change accomplished is profound A nation isessentially an "imagined community" since all the participants cannever know every single national but such community is based on thesolidarity and fraternity of group belonging (Anderson 7) and if Britonsimagine themselves as a part of diverse community which does notlack solidarity, the British national identity will, once again, shift itscore characteristics and so will the solidarity bonds cementing thecollective consciousness The ethnic redefinition of the black diaspora

or the attempt to redefine black Britishness is based on the diversity of

British identity - "to be British and something else" (Clifford 287)

which is eased by the prevailing presence of transnationalism, asopposed to nationalism, in the diasporic communities

Despite tumultuous European history, Europe has tried to cometogether as one community Despite the cultural and linguisticheterogeneity, the "shared consciousness" of belonging is built upon

"capitalism, social welfare, liberal democracy, respect for human

rights, freedom, the rule of law, prosperity and progress" (Guibernau115-6).

Caribbean identities had been constructed on the basis ofcultural syncretism Caribbean people of all kinds and classes find itdifficult to position themselves in a cultural identity since that involvesnegotiation of many complex aspects of it (S Hall, "NegotiatingCaribbean Identities" 30) Despite the preference for constructivismrather than essentialism, identity's recognition is a reciprocal processsince the recognition comes from outside (ibid., 30) As such, thenegotiation of Caribbean identities of first and other generations inBritain took interesting turns since identity is not to be found in thepast but to be constructed in the future: the struggles for recognition

of black British presence had different forms, for example the stilldiscriminated against second generation found its salvation in reggaemusic and rastafarianism (ibid., 37)

3 Andrea Levy: Discrimination and Belonging through Generations

3.1 Andrea Levy, Small Island: Loyal West Indians with a British

Passport: Bittersweet Homecoming

Andrea Levy (1956) is a British novelist of Jamaican background;

her own father came to England in 1948 on the Empire Windrush She

asserts that her fiction is about being black and British (Burns)

In Small Island and Fruit of the Lemon, I am going to

concentrate mainly on the experience of the first generation andsecond generation of West Indians in Britain with attention to theevolution of prejudice, stereotype and discrimination

Small Island (2004) is a prize-winning novel which was adapted

for television Primarily set in 1948, it tells the story of a Jamaicancouple who moves to England after World War II Their story isinterwoven with a white couple they come across in London

Fruit of the Lemon (1999) is a novel about a young Londoner

Faith Faith is a second-generation Briton of West Indian ancestry andafter encountering a fair share of racism, she decides to go back to thecountry of her ancestors, Jamaica

As for discrimination, Levy saw a profound change from overt tosubtle, institutionalised racism in her real life (Burns) Together withwriters such as Zadie Smith, Hanif Kureishi or Meera Syal, she helped

redefine the concept of Englishness and acknowledges that socialchange in terms of just one decade has been enormous (Levy, "Underthe Skin of History") She sees herself as English with multiple roots:

"I also have this wonderfully rich heritage which I would like morepeople to understand and acknowledge" (ibid.), which has become anincreasingly popular, transnational, way to identify oneself in theincreasingly diverse Britain

While the success of Small Island was downplayed by some

critics to be the result of revisiting colonial guilt, Levy managed towrite stories of several people with passion, poise and bursting withdown-to-earth humour The novel was filmed in 2009 The observationsthe novels' protagonists make are sometimes very philosophical butmostly full of simple notes on life in England, delivered with a touch ofpoetry, humour or irony; many of them are repetitions of observationsvoiced by other writers such as Samuel Selvon, E.R Braithwaite, V.S.Naipaul or George Lamming The personal histories of men who fought

in the RAF during World War II bring history into life but are void ofmoral judgment or pity nor do they attempt to arouse pity – they ratheroffer a reconciliatory hand and a minority perspective on theexperience of Britain

A person who has never travelled still believes their mother is the best

cook (Small Island 471).

3.1.1 Prejudice, Stereotype, Racism and Cultural Imperialism

In Small Island, Levy managed to capture the seemingly

innocuous expectations of West Indians coming to Britain and describethe Britons' sense of prejudice in the postwar period, challenged in theaftermath of immigration from the former colonies To Levy,immigration is a dynamic process; both sides are affected by it ("Underthe Skin of History") Lima points out that many writers of the

diaspora choose the form of bildungsroman since the quest for

personal and national identity suits the concept of it (58) In the novel,Hortense and Gilbert, a West Indian couple who come to Britain on the

Empire Windrush, are both adults; Hortense was a teacher in the

Caribbean and Gilbert was a pilot during World War II Yet theircoming to Britain makes them embark on an involuntary journey of re-evaluating what their Caribbean upbringing and education instilled inthem

Racism, prejudice and myths were as common in postwarLondon as houses infested with rats Levy not only unveils the racism

of the white couple, Queenie and Bernard, that Gilbert and Hortensecross their path with, but also shows why racism and rejection were allthe more unforeseen to West Indians in Britain While being brought

up to believe England was their mother country, they find post-war

London prejudiced and unwelcoming which is even more wrenching since their relatives fought for Britain in World War II andthey were brought up in colonial schools to revere Britain

heart-Levy contrived to show stereotype and prejudice in manydifferent situations on many disparate occasions Some seem a bitobsolete to a present reader but it is important to remember thepostwar time setting Many situations or encounters are sad stories ofrejection and discrimination but Levy weaved her storytelling fromtears and resentment to laughter Laughter is then a way to fight dailyincidents of unfriendliness; many of the stories evoke how mistrust andanimosity come with ignorance and lack of information Nevertheless,Britons put West Indians and Asians into one single category -'coloured' (which was also used interchangeably with the wordimmigrant) and ignorance went hand in hand with indifference (Hiro52) Prejudice and discrimination were not reserved to West Indiansonly - the word 'coloured' entailed anyone who was not white orCaucasian (ibid., 52)

On the other hand, other stories suggest tolerance's connection

to experience, knowledge or open mind However, the opportunitiesfor travel and information accessibility were also quite limited at thetime

Instead, Britain shows West Indians that they do not belong and

have never belonged in spite of their colonial education stressingloyalty to the British Crown Already at times of slavery, slaves madehumour a means of venting frustration and misery and the same toolhas been used in Post-Emancipation literature with its self-derisivehumour (Hiro 22) Levy also chooses humour in many situations thatwould otherwise seem utterly tragic and as such, it would be wrong tolabel her as a writer inciting colonial guilt; instead, humour seems to

be a tool of reconciliation with the past Gilbert states that "laughter is

part of my war effort" (Small Island 273) and when Hortense is

disconcerted by constant stares in the street, he tells her not to worrysince the King of England has the same problem (722)

Small Island is layered with prejudice and exposing it in the

same space has shown the force that prejudice, myths or stereotypicalrepresentations have The white Britons fear West Indians in the sameway they despise Indians; American GIs are unable to view black GIs

as equals, middle-class Londoners would rather if Cockneys and Poleswere not in their sight and Jamaicans have their own set of prejudicesagainst West Indians from smaller islands While signification canassume the role of myth making (with myths being considered

"timeless truths"), myths can also inhibit the ability to "interpretcultural meanings" (Cohen and Kennedy 234)

Queenie, the white landlady to Gilbert and Hortense, cannot help

patronizing the lodgers and requires no smells (39) Ironically, inhistory, the white colonizers, aiming to wash themselves from any guiltthey could feel; they have created, maintained and spread manystereotypes about black people and these stereotypicalrepresentations became engrained in the popular British beliefs andmyths (Hiro 3) For those historical reasons, dark pigmentation carriedassociations of "dirt, poverty, inferior social status, low intelligence,animal sexuality, primitiveness and violence" (ibid., 281) It then seemsrather ironic when the uppity Hortense despises Queenie for her lousyhouse and lack of fashion sense and reckons she will have to live like

an animal in her house (Small Island 60) and considers herself

superior to her since she is a teacher and Queenie a landlady (364).Both clearly categorize people on different criteria, Hortense ispreoccupied with class which, in her interpretation, is inherent in race,while Queenie´s mind is steeped in colour prejudice which is revealedupon her acting on her beliefs Their mutual contempt for each otherdoes not reveal itself between them - when Hortense sneers atQueenie's "scruffy housecoat", Queenie interprets it as Hortense'anxiety about going public together and tries to reassure her that shedoes not mind being seen with blacks (518) The absurdity of certainsituations fills the novel with humour while revealing each character'sbeliefs, prejudices or assumptions