The Anancy Aesthetic in Caribbean Literature in Britain

Originating in the Caribbean versions of the Anancy tales, the aesthetic focuses both on the symbolism of the eponymous trickster character, the liminal, brazen and malleable Anancy who offered a device to push against traditional, Eurocentric storytelling styles, and the multisensory aspects of the tales.

This book explores how the Anancy tales have been reinvented at critical political junctures to speak to identity and heritage. In her monograph, Natalie Lucy considers the influence of an ‘Anancy aesthetic’ on the writing of British authors with Caribbean heritage. Originating in the Caribbean versions of the Anancy tales, the aesthetic focuses both on the symbolism of the eponymous trickster character, the liminal, brazen and malleable Anancy who offered a device to push against traditional, Eurocentric storytelling styles, and the multisensory aspects of the tales. The stories offered a distinct, fortifying language on the plantations and a fundamental feature of the ‘Anancy aesthetic’ is its themes of identity and heritage. Its impact is prominent in the writing of the Caribbean Artists Movement when debating a Caribbean ‘voice’ in the 1960s, but also emerges in the writing of ‘Second Generation’ authors, including Alex Wheatle and Andrea Levy. Most interesting, features of the tales appear in a diverse panoply of cultural traditions, which, while distinctly Caribbean are now intertwined with ideas of ‘Britishness’. Part literary biography, Lucy has built upon archival research and interviews, as she follows Anancy’s historical path to trace the multifarious ways he has been shaped by the circumstances of his reinvention. A key question is how and why the Anancy tales continue to provide inspiration for myriad transnational writers, not only through a multisensory style of storytelling but in centralising themes of resistance, heritage and voice.