Abstract
The chapter posits that the concept of borders and transgression is central to Black British writers’ concerns situated as those writers are on the fault lines of discourse around British identity. Using Peter Kalu’s short story, “The Keeper of Books” as focal point, the chapter examines “Keeper”’s intermediality of form; how “Keeper” unsettles dominant discourses of history; uncertainties of narrative voice; the synthesis of fable and literary text; the differential treatment of fable and written text; the disruptive provocation of non-binary racial elements; rhetorical strategies that close the racial empathy gap; hybridity as stylistics; characterisation endgames and political eschatology.
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Kalu, P. (2019). Strangers at the Gates: Intermediality, Borders and the Short Story. In: Korte, B., Lojo-Rodríguez, L. (eds) Borders and Border Crossings in the Contemporary British Short Story. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-30359-4_14
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-30359-4_14
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