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Article published In: English Text Construction
Vol. 17:1 (2024) ► pp.83–105

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More than ‘ignorant bushbaby bullshit’

The racialised metaperspective as mind style in Marlon James’ A Brief History of Seven Killings (2014)

 | University of Nottingham
Published online: 18 October 2024
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https://doi.org/10.1075/etc.00063.ada
Abstract
According to the social psychologists R. D. Laing, H. Phillipson and A. R. Lee, we human beings are constantly speculating about the view that others have upon us, thereby forming a metaperspective (Laing, R. D., H. Phillipson & A. R. Lee. 1966. Interpersonal Perception: A theory and a method of research. London: Tavistock.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar). Yet despite the fact that literature is grounded in some of the most fundamental and general structures of human cognitive experience (Gavins, Joanna and Gerard Steen. 2003. ‘Contextualising cognitive poetics’, in Cognitive Poetics in Practice, ed. by Joanna Gavins and Gerard Steen, 1–14. London; New York: Bloomsbury. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar: 2), proving a rich seam to mine for metaperspectives, the concept has not yet been explored in a literary context. Accordingly, this paper adopts an interdisciplinary approach to investigate metaperspectives within fiction for the first time. Introduced is my coinage of the racialised metaperspective, denoting a sub-type concerned with colour, culture, and/or ethnicity. Taking as my literary case study Marlon James’ A Brief History of Seven Killings (2014), I demonstrate that the racialised metaperspective both contributes to the depiction of a specific social milieu within a text, and serves a characterising function.
Article outline
  • 1.Introduction
  • 2.Methodology and the metaperspective
    • 2.1The metaperspective
    • 2.2The racialised metaperspective
      • 2.2.1The racialised metaperspective: Related concepts
  • 3.Metaperspectives in Montego Bay
    • 3.1A brief history of A Brief History
    • 3.2The racialised metaperspective: Nosey neighbours
    • 3.3The racialised metaperspective: Misogynistic men
  • 4.Conclusions and future prospects
  • Notes
  • References
References (53)
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