Narrating the ›Underclass‹ in Black British Fiction

When one is poor and black, it is hard »to come into representation«(Hall, New Ethnicities 164). Those on the margins of society are usuallytalked and written about rather than given a voice of their own.Young black men in particular are stereotyped as criminal and violent,as dangerous threats to society. In this context the term 'underclass'comes up time and again in public discourse. It is a very controversiallabel which masquerades as a scientific descriptor but actually fulfilsthe ideological function of stigmatising the poor and justifying theircriminalisation and marginalisation.Black British novels dealing with the 'underclass', such as AlexWheatle's East of Acre Lane (2001) and The Dirty South (2008) as wellas Courttia Newland's The Scholar (1997), put those living on the peripheryof British society at the centre of their narratives - as focalisersor first-person narrators. Their stories provide a place where stereotypesabout 'black youth' are scrutinised and challenged.Within the field of black British fiction, black 'underclass' subjectivitiesseem to be somewhat overlooked in literary representations; andthey only appear on the margins of academic research. This study aimsat improving this situation by providing a comprehensive analysis ofthe representational strategies employed by the selected black Britishnovels as well as discussing the conditions under which black Britishauthors and their work are perceived and marketed by the publishingindustry. The analysis draws attention to the way in which structuralracism, classism and sexism impact protagonists and authors alike.