Member Profile
Name:
Ayesha Gaye
Institution:
Durham University
Academic status:
Student
Main discipline:
Literary Studies
Additional disciplines:
History
Literary Studies
Literary Studies
Other societies:
Research interests:
My PhD research explores the representations of blackness and biracialism in British literature c. 1830-1880. It combines the writings of both Black and White writers of the Victorian era, including Mary Prince, Charles Dickens, Mary Seacole, and Elizabeth Barrett-Browning. In my thesis, I provide close readings of texts written by my chosen writers, examining the portrayals of Black or Biracial identity. I am particularly concerned with how perceptions of Black/Biracial identities contrasted both politically and socially in nineteenth-century Britain, and also, how Black society used their voices in writing to elevate their social positions in the face of racial prejudice.