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Reading the Riots : Precarity, Racial Injustice and Rights in the Novels of Alex Wheatle

Laursen, Ole LU (2015) p.214-228
Abstract
In view of Stuart Hall’s challenge issued in the wake of the 1985 Broadwater Farm riots, this essay aims to locate issues of precarity, racial injustice and rights in Alex Wheatle’s East of Acre Lane (2001) and The Dirty South (2008). Set on council estates in urban areas of London in 1981 and the early 2000s, respectively, these two novels represent and respond to continual legacies of colonialism and globalization — such as unemployment, institutional racism and excessive stop-and-search methods — that face many young black people in Britain today and that, in many ways, resulted in the riots that took place across Britain in August 2011. My investigation of these two novels is framed by two sets of ‘events’ that are interconnected... (More)
In view of Stuart Hall’s challenge issued in the wake of the 1985 Broadwater Farm riots, this essay aims to locate issues of precarity, racial injustice and rights in Alex Wheatle’s East of Acre Lane (2001) and The Dirty South (2008). Set on council estates in urban areas of London in 1981 and the early 2000s, respectively, these two novels represent and respond to continual legacies of colonialism and globalization — such as unemployment, institutional racism and excessive stop-and-search methods — that face many young black people in Britain today and that, in many ways, resulted in the riots that took place across Britain in August 2011. My investigation of these two novels is framed by two sets of ‘events’ that are interconnected through questions of precarity, racial injustice and black and minority ethnic rights: first, the series of riots that occurred in the early 1980s — such as the 1981 riots in Brixton as represented in East of Acre Lane — and second, the fatal shooting of Mark Duggan by the Metropolitan Police in August 2011 and the subsequent riots in London and across Britain. Following Bhattacharyya’s argument that ‘the days of rioting are not, in themselves, the events that merit analysis and scrutiny’ (183), my reading of ‘riots’ in this essay extends to rioting as a symptom of and response to certain social and historical conditions as portrayed in Wheatle’s The Dirty South. (Less)
Please use this url to cite or link to this publication:
author
publishing date
type
Chapter in Book/Report/Conference proceeding
publication status
published
subject
keywords
riots, social movement, diaspora, Literature and culture
host publication
Reworking Postcolonialism : Globalization, Labour and Rights - Globalization, Labour and Rights
editor
Malreddy, Pavan Kumar ; Heidemann, Birte ; Laursen, Ole Birk and Wilson, Janet
pages
214 - 228
publisher
Routledge
external identifiers
  • scopus:84969217030
ISBN
978-1-137-43593-4
978-1-349-49331-9
DOI
10.1057/9781137435934_14
language
English
LU publication?
no
id
addef0a5-4b5f-4f22-954a-4a18bf8047a2
date added to LUP
2023-10-05 16:20:35
date last changed
2024-01-14 20:37:27
@inbook{addef0a5-4b5f-4f22-954a-4a18bf8047a2,
  abstract     = {{In view of Stuart Hall’s challenge issued in the wake of the 1985 Broadwater Farm riots, this essay aims to locate issues of precarity, racial injustice and rights in Alex Wheatle’s East of Acre Lane (2001) and The Dirty South (2008). Set on council estates in urban areas of London in 1981 and the early 2000s, respectively, these two novels represent and respond to continual legacies of colonialism and globalization — such as unemployment, institutional racism and excessive stop-and-search methods — that face many young black people in Britain today and that, in many ways, resulted in the riots that took place across Britain in August 2011. My investigation of these two novels is framed by two sets of ‘events’ that are interconnected through questions of precarity, racial injustice and black and minority ethnic rights: first, the series of riots that occurred in the early 1980s — such as the 1981 riots in Brixton as represented in East of Acre Lane — and second, the fatal shooting of Mark Duggan by the Metropolitan Police in August 2011 and the subsequent riots in London and across Britain. Following Bhattacharyya’s argument that ‘the days of rioting are not, in themselves, the events that merit analysis and scrutiny’ (183), my reading of ‘riots’ in this essay extends to rioting as a symptom of and response to certain social and historical conditions as portrayed in Wheatle’s The Dirty South.}},
  author       = {{Laursen, Ole}},
  booktitle    = {{Reworking Postcolonialism : Globalization, Labour and Rights}},
  editor       = {{Malreddy, Pavan Kumar and Heidemann, Birte and Laursen, Ole Birk and Wilson, Janet}},
  isbn         = {{978-1-137-43593-4}},
  keywords     = {{riots; social movement; diaspora; Literature and culture}},
  language     = {{eng}},
  pages        = {{214--228}},
  publisher    = {{Routledge}},
  title        = {{Reading the Riots : Precarity, Racial Injustice and Rights in the Novels of Alex Wheatle}},
  url          = {{http://dx.doi.org/10.1057/9781137435934_14}},
  doi          = {{10.1057/9781137435934_14}},
  year         = {{2015}},
}