Publishing Black British Short Stories: The Potential and Place of a Marginalised Form

该项目探讨了1940年至2020年英国黑人短篇小说的潜力和地位。我将考虑短篇小说如何在英国黑人写作的神圣化之外运作，这集中在促进当代多元文化和城市小说。Kean（2015）注意到出版商的期望，即黑人小说应该通过长篇叙事来支持多元文化主义的积极表现，这种叙事允许白色读者“参与"黑人经历，而Squires（2012）讨论了该行业在维持此类叙事成功方面的”守门“作用。短篇小说通过对话语等级和边缘地位的颠覆，创造了不同的叙事空间，打破并挑战了黑人写作的行业主导的同质性。虽然研究更广泛地探讨了后殖民短篇小说（霍尔顿，2010，2013;Awadalla & March-Russell，2013），但英国黑人短篇小说仍然受到批评和商业上的忽视。通过档案研究，我将追溯形式的出版历史，它与英国黑人写作的“中心”的接触，以及它在杂志，期刊，印刷收藏和在线空间中的功能。这个项目建立在我的一等学士学位论文基础上，该论文研究了21世纪初英国黑人教育小说的营销，以及目前的20，000字MRes论文，本章考察了两本小说集在文学市场上的地位。从我的BA和MRes研究，我已经开发了广泛而深入的学科知识和熟悉的理论和批判性辩论，我将在我的博士学位扩展。我已经开始在公共场合传播我最初的研究成果：我被委托为文学百科全书（一个主要的在线资源）撰写关于蝴蝶鱼和说话巨人的文章（Okojie，2015，2016），并被邀请在NTU文学文化会议上发表论文（重塑身份）。

This project explores the potential and place of black British short stories from 1940 to 2020. I willconsider how short fiction operates outside of the publisher-led canonisation of black writing in Britain,which centres on the promotion of contemporary multicultural and urban novels. Kean (2015) notespublishers' expectations that black fiction should uphold a positive representation of multiculturalismthrough longformnarratives which allow white readers to 'engage' with black experiences, andSquires (2012) discusses the 'gatekeeping' role of the industry in maintaining the success of suchnarratives. Short fiction, via its inversion of discursive hierarchies and marginal position, createsdissident narrative spaces which can interrupt and challenge the industry-led homogeneity of blackwriting. While studies have explored postcolonial short fiction more broadly (Holden, 2010, 2013;Awadalla & March-Russell, 2013), black British short stories remain critically and commerciallyneglected. Through archival research I will trace the form's history of publication, its engagement withthe 'centre' of black British writing, and its function in magazines, journals, printed collections andonline spaces.This project builds from my First-Class BA dissertation, which examined the marketing of black Britishbildungsromane in the early 21st century, and current 20,000-word MRes dissertation, whichinvestigates the position of two recent story collections in the literary marketplace. From my BA andMRes research I have developed broad and deep subject knowledge and familiarity with theoreticaland critical debates that I will extend in my PhD. I have already begun disseminating my initial researchideas in public: I have been commissioned to write articles on Butterfly Fish and Speak Gigantular(Okojie, 2015, 2016) for the Literary Encyclopaedia (a major online resource), and was invited to delivera paper at the NTU Literary Cultures Conference (Reclaiming Identity).