Jackie Kay’s novel Trumpet depicts characters who naturally challenge the conventional perceptions of race, gender, identity, and other socially constructed aspects of humanity. The text is set in the United Kingdom in the early to mid twentieth...

Jackie Kay has created a topic of controversy regarding gender identity in the novel Trumpet. Through the difference in perspectives on the gender of Joss Moody and Millie Moody, the novel contests the absoluteness of one’s identity by proving...

Examining the concept of binary gender proves valuable when exploring gender and sexuality within literature. This essay will examine this notion by focusing on how key novels relating to gender and sexual challenge the fixity of a gender binary,...

Gender may be defined as ‘the personal traits and position in society connected with being male or female’.[1] The binary genders then, are the male and female which John Carl contrasts simply: ‘wearing high heels is associated with the female...

Stories are never told by simply listing what happens, and in fact narratives are produced using a wide combination of literary techniques such as time fragmentation, intertexual references and metaphorical imagery. Here, it is necessary to...

The Equilibria of Humor and Solemnity in Jackie Kay's Pain

Within a predominantly autobiographical collection of works, Jackie Kay could not be less dubious about her references to past and present personal experiences. No matter the conditions...

Jackie Kay once wrote in an article for ‘The Guardian’ newspaper that ‘being adopted is like having a double life. Being a writer is like having a double life. You live in two worlds at once…when you’re adopted and you trace your original parents,...