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image of Black experience, bajan, and musico-literary intermediality in Austin Clarke’s They Never Told Me
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Abstract

This paper explores the use of Bajan, a spoken language of Barbados, and musico-literary intermediality in the depiction of black diasporic experiences in Austin Clarke’s short story collection , arguing that these strategies infuse English with localised, embodied and affective dimensions. Relying on Edward Kamau Brathwaite’s work on West Indian aesthetics and on Werner Wolf’s theorisation of musical intermediality, the paper demonstrates how Clarke uses Bajan to resist colonial ideas of a bounded Standard language. In addition, it shows how Clarke questions the privileged position of English and the English canon through intertextual appropriation. It further investigates how references to African diasporic music genres such as calypso, folk song and tap music in the stories gesture towards black characters’ shared cultural memory as well as intergenerational and cross-ethnic understanding. Together, these strategies point to the emergence of de-centred and layered forms of expression through which Anglophone black Canadian literature contributes to configuring English as a plural, relational language of encounter.

© John Benjamins Publishing Company
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2026-07-07
2026-07-16

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  • Article Type: Research Article
Keywords: Bajan ; musico-literary intermediality ; black experience ; Austin Clarke ; anglophone black canadian literature

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