Disorientalism: the counternarratives of Jim Crace

Bayliss, Oliver Alexander (2025). Disorientalism: the counternarratives of Jim Crace. University of Birmingham. M.A.

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Abstract

The primary objective of this study is to provide an analysis of selected prose fiction by Jim Crace and present the work as political commentary. The intention is to highlight this generally overlooked aspect of Crace’s first novels by investigating the development of his fabulist methodology. This interpretation is then employed to inform readings of further works with the additional layer of meaning as symbolic allegory. As a result, this investigation will refute criticisms of Crace’s work being removed from political discourse.

The study defines Crace’s individual mode of defamiliarization as disorientalism to emphasise the critical concept of Crace’s strategic mode. As this study illustrates, Crace initially developed his methodology to counter misrepresentation of African countries in literary fiction and subsequently applied the mode to critique the dominance of neoliberal ideology with counternarratives.

The study begins with a brief biographical overview and summary of literary characteristics within the context of contemporary British fiction, as well as providing definitions of key terms. This leads into the second chapter examining political inspiration and motivations for Crace’s transition from journalistic writing to a parabolic fabulism informed by magical realism, while the following section assesses Crace’s debut novel, Continent, as allegory rather than abstract invention. These first sections also provide a theoretical framework and literature review. Further chapters employ close readings to investigate the novels The Gift of Stones, Arcadia, and Quarantine as sociopolitical commentary of post-Thatcherite urban Britain and counternarrative to the cultural shift toward globalized neoliberalism. The next chapters continue this analysis with close readings of Crace’s more refined mode of critical mythopoeia for The Pesthouse and Harvest to frame these works as contemporary fables rather than dystopian and historical genre fictions respectively, as they are often presented and critiqued accordingly. A final reading of the more explicitly allegorical The Melody further illustrates the political credo informing Crace’s fabulism and explains the disorientalist method as a socially conscious form of symbolism.

These readings seek to address issues of literary misrepresentation and cultural appropriation prominent in contemporary discourse by championing a single author’s personal strategy for ethically addressing global themes of exploitation, inequality, and dehumanisation beyond his own ethnic and social background.

Type of Work:

Thesis (Masters by Research > M.A.)

Award Type:

Masters by Research > M.A.

Supervisor(s):