From Periphery to Center: Challenging Stereotypes and Deconstructing Binaries in Andrea Levy’s Small Island

Abstract

This research paper intends to critically examine counter-discursive strategies in contemporary postcolonial novel with special focus on the British colonial stereotypes about the colonized Other in general and the West Indies in particular as represented in Andrea Levy’s masterpiece، Small Island. The study illustrates how Levy succeeds in challenging the Western Canon by questioning stereotypes، reversing European imperialist fixed binaries and deconstructing the Eurocentric myths of superiority، authority and civility. The study follows a descriptive and analytical method based on the critical analysis of Levy’s Small Island within the theoretical framework of postcolonialism. It throws some light on such issues as identity crisis، discrimination، and racial prejudice، in order to expose the negative impact of colonial attitudes on the relationship between the West and the Rest. It further illustrates how these attitudes result in misunderstanding among different cultures، obstructing possibilities of dialogue and aggravating crisis in human relationships within the globalized world today. On the other hand، the study shows how Levy، as a postcolonial writer، reconstructs the world by rewriting canonical stories and ‘writing back’ to the Centre of the Empire to create a canonical counter-discourse، as a response to the classics of English literature. By challenging stereotypes about the non-Western Other and destabilizing the Eurocentric assumption of authority، Levy intends to project reconciliation and dialogue as the only alternatives for a peaceful co-existence with the Other in a multicultural world.