UNDERSTANDING RACIAL DIVISIONS IN SPATIAL TERMS: SELVON, KUREISHI AND ADEBAYO ON BEING BLACK IN LONDON

Öz

In this essay, I explore the critical ways in which multicultural landscape of London is portrayed with a view to understanding divisions of race, culture, and social class in the following selected works of fiction: Sam Selvon's The Lonely Londoners (1956), Hanif Kureishi's The Buddha of Suburbia (1990), and Diran Adebayo's Some Kind of Black (1996). These novels, which are respectively set in the fifties, seventies, and nineties, primarily address long-established prejudices against black people by recognising the hardships of immigrant experience in London and attempt to counter racial essentialisms. I show that as changes occur in social and political conditions over time, concerns of immigrant groups change as well, along with the kinds of communality they aspire to be a part of and the response to problems they give. In my analysis, while in Lonely Londoners, London acts as the immediate post-imperial destination for immigrants, who experience prejudice from the locals and have to compete with each other, but still remain friends and a community, in both The Buddha of Suburbia and Some Kind of Black, the idea of being part of a community (even a “black” one) becomes more intricate from the perspective of the descendants of immigrants, who attempt to reformulate binary constructs of race. I conclude that the above-mentioned authors who have written about the experiences of immigrants and later generations in a dialogue with the city have contributed to the creation of a more legible social map of London, which can help achieve a raise in popular interest and awareness regarding racial issues.

Anahtar Kelimeler

• London
• city
• identity
• cultural diversity
• immigrants
• racism

IRKSAL AYRIMLARI MEKANSAL AÇIDAN ANLAMAK: SELVON, KUREISHI VE ADEBAYO'DAN LONDRA'DA SİYAH OLMAK

Öz

Bu makalede, Londra’da çok kültürlülüğün eleştirel betimlemeleri, kentsel ırk, kültür ve toplumsal sınıf ayrımlarının çözümlenmesine katkıda bulunmak kaygısıyla, aşağıdaki kitaplar aracılığıyla incelenmektedir: Sam Selvon’ın The Lonely Londoners (1956)’ı, Hanif Kureishi’nin The Buddha of Suburbia (1990)’sı ve Diran Adebayo’nun Some Kind of Black (1996)’i. Sırayla elli, yetmiş ve doksanlı yıllarda kurgulanmış olan bu üç roman, her şeyden önce Londra’daki göçmenlerin deneyimlediği güçlüklerin bilincinde olarak, siyah insanlara karşı uzun süredir var olan önyargıları ele almakta ve ırkçı yönelimlerin karşısında durmaya çalışmaktadırlar. Bu yazıda, toplumsal ve siyasi koşullarda zaman içerisinde yaşanan değişikliklerin yanı sıra, göçmen grupların kaygıları ile göçmenlerin ne tür bir topluluğun parçası olmak istedikleri ve sorunlar karşısında ne gibi tepkiler verdikleri konularında da değişiklikler olabildiği gösterilmektedir. Bu analiz kapsamında, Lonely Londoners’da Londra, yerel halkın önyargılarını tecrübe edip birbiriyle rekabet etmek zorunda kalan, ancak yine de arkadaş ve içinde bulundukları topluluğun birer üyesi olarak kalabilen göçmenler için bir imparatorluk sonrası cazibe merkezi işlevini yerine getirmekteyken, The Buddha of Suburbia ve Some Kind of Black’te ise, (“siyahi” bile olsa) bir topluluğun bir parçası olma fikri, ırksal ikililikleri yeniden formüle etmeye çabalayan göçmen çocuklarının bakış açılarından bakıldığında daha da karmaşık bir hal almaktadır. Göçmenlerin ve sonraki nesillerin deneyimlerini kentle bir diyalog içerisinde kaleme alan söz konusu bu yazarlar, Londra’nın, ırksal meseleler bakımından toplumsal ilgi ve farkındalığın artmasına katkıda bulunabilecek daha okunaklı bir toplumsal haritasının oluşturulmasına katkıda bulunmuşlardır.

Anahtar Kelimeler

• Londra
• kent
• kimlik
• kültürel çeşitlilik
• göçmenler
• ırkçılık

Kaynakça

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