Overview

This book explores how the Anancy tales have been reinvented at critical political junctures to speak to identity and heritage. In her monograph, Natalie Lucy considers the influence of an ‘Anancy aesthetic’ on the writing of British authors with Caribbean heritage. Originating in the Caribbean versions of the Anancy tales, the aesthetic focuses both on the symbolism of the eponymous trickster character, the liminal, brazen and malleable Anancy who offered a device to push against traditional, Eurocentric storytelling styles, and the multisensory aspects of the tales. The stories offered a distinct, fortifying language on the plantations and a fundamental feature of the ‘Anancy aesthetic’ is its themes of identity and heritage. Its impact is prominent in the writing of the Caribbean Artists Movement when debating a Caribbean ‘voice’ in the 1960s, but also emerges in the writing of ‘Second Generation’ authors, including Alex Wheatle and Andrea Levy. Most interesting, features of the tales appear in a diverse panoply of cultural traditions, which, while distinctly Caribbean are now intertwined with ideas of ‘Britishness’. Part literary biography, Lucy has built upon archival research and interviews, as she follows Anancy’s historical path to trace the multifarious ways he has been shaped by the circumstances of his reinvention. A key question is how and why the Anancy tales continue to provide inspiration for myriad transnational writers, not only through a multisensory style of storytelling but in centralising themes of resistance, heritage and voice.

Full Product Details

Author:   Natalie Lucy
Publisher:   Springer Nature Switzerland AG
Imprint:   Palgrave Macmillan
ISBN:  

9783032226679

ISBN 10:   3032226678
Pages:   241
Publication Date:   07 July 2026
Audience:   College/higher education ,  Postgraduate, Research & Scholarly
Format:   Hardback
Publisher's Status:   Forthcoming
Availability:   Not yet available  
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Table of Contents

.- Introduction.- Part One: Foundations and the Creation of an Anancy Aesthetic.- Chapter 1: Recovering the Stories.- Chapter 2: Louise Bennett, Pretending to be Laughing.- Chapter 3: Arrival. Caribbean Voices and the Foundations for a Caribbean Aesthetic.- Chapter 4: Defining Voice and the Significance of Anancy to a Caribbean Aesthetic.- Part Two: New Foundations; New Beacons.- Chapter 5: Infiltrating the Secret Garden: The Pursuit of Place for Black Britons of the Caribbean Diaspora.- Chapter 6: Towards a sense of Belonging: Anancy, the Tales and their Emergence in British Writing of the Caribbean Diaspora.- Chapter 7: New Generations and the Shape of Anancy in Contemporary British Writing for Children.- Chapter 8: Anancy’s Many Shapes: A British Anancy, Disassembled and Reconstructed – Conclusion.

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Author Information

Natalie Lucy completed her Ph.D. in January 2024 at UCL and was previously a solicitor. Part of her Ph.D. included a six-month placement at the British Library working on Andrew Salkey's archive. The project aimed to digitally “map” the Caribbean diaspora and represent the vital literary networks evidenced in his rich collection of correspondence from a host of celebrated Caribbean writers, politicians, and activists. Lucy is very interested in Caribbean culture and, more generally, how language helps to define identity.

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