Nichols Engendered Species: A Deconstructive Analysis Popular themes in Black British literature include racism, sexism, exile, otherness,

individualism and so on. Because Black British literature includes expressions from so many different locations around the world, establishing ones voice may conflict with others in the same cultural group. I use quotation marks because as a cultural group can define someone, it can also trap them in misrepresentation and deny one of true individual expression. Recognition of these varying cultural identities within a blanketing category is easily misunderstood or just missed. This especially applies to the voice of women as well. Grace Nicholss poetry in The Fat Black Womans Poems addresses both the experience of being black and the experience of being a woman. These narrative poems were written in the 80s, a time when riots were common in several districts of London, caused by racism and social discrimination. Through vivid imagery and language, Nichols expresses and critiques the prejudices that circulated England towards the blacks, the women and social stereotypes (weight) that determined beauty and normality. My paper is not intended to focus on Nichols success in capturing the prejudices she suffered, but to engage in what separates her from her cultural identity. I would like to explore how Nichols creates and engenders her own identity through her chosen language and technique. Derridas deconstruction method allows for a deeper understanding of the text as it concentrates on the text in relation to various contexts and oppositions that ultimately unfold Nichols discourse and creation of identity.

Nichols uses the female body (the physical) to mold a distinct identity; what is interesting is how it affects the conceptual identity (the metaphysical) which creates a constantly shifting perspective. Her genius was in the diverse portrayal of the black female identity using the female body, rejecting social, made up roles that women in the Caribbean have long been confined. Gabrielle Griffin discusses Nichols's poetry in relation to Kristeva's Revolution in Poetic Language, identifying several conceptions of 'writing the body.' By focusing on the aspects of her language (rhythm and layout), Griffin recognizes 'Nichols' Black woman uses her body and voice to maintain her sense of selfhood in order to contrast the structures that oppress her (1993,p. 28). The key word here is contrastNichols creation of identity relies on what she is, but more importantly, on what she is not. In an interview discussing her poem Out of Africa Nichols credits the importance of selection in creation: you can assemble image after image, but for the poem to work and not be overcrowded you have to be selective. That's where intuition and your inner musical ear come together to help in the process of choosing (citation pending). Nichols often omits words in order to distinguish and emphasis her identity. For example, the poem The Fat Black woman goes shopping is written in free verse, with an irregular rhyme scheme and varying lengths of lines and stanzas. She combines british English and foreign English. The words she deliberately leaves out serve not as an absence but an enforcement of her culture, attributing to her identity. The fifth line in the first stanza reads: and de weather so cold, here she omits is between weather and so, fusing her English discourse with that of her Creole discourse. This happens again as the fat black woman curses in Creole, abandoning her English because of her

extensive walk in search of suitable clothes. This is done often in many of her poems, making her voice innovative, and one of rediscovery. She speaks of her language in poetry as both the challenge of trying to create or chisel out a new language that I like and also as reclaiming our language inheritance and exploring it (Ngcobo, 1988, p. 97). Her ambition to mix dominant and suppressed discourses comes from a background where the two worlds, Creole and standard English, were constantly interacting and considers language itself a place of repressed meaning: Creole was regarded obviously as the inferior by the colonial powers when I was growing up, and still has a social stigma attached to it in the Caribbean (p. 97). Nichols claims, Difference, diversity and unpredictability make me tick (p. 98), further emphasizing the variety of meaning one can derive from her words. The creation of the Creole language becoming its own is influential and inspirational to her: it is a language that our foremothers and forefathers struggled to create and we're saying that it's valid, vibrant language (pp. 97-98). Nichols not only uses the body to ensue her messages, but creates a selfdelighting sexuality that celebrates and empowers the fat black woman body. This is best demonstrated in the second stanza of Invitation : Come up and see me sometime Come up and see me sometime My breasts are huge exciting amnions of water melon

your hands cant cup my thighs are twin seals fat as slick pups theres a purple cherry below the blues of my black seabelly theres a mole that gets a ride each time I shift the heritage of my behind Come up and see me sometime (1984,p. 13).

This is an ironic parody of the famous song from blonde bombshell Mae West in the 30s Come Up and See Me Sometime. The female body may be sexualized, but it is driven as an erotic force that defies the typical western feminine ideologies. The speaker proudly offers detailed descriptions of her large body. Her ungraspable breasts and slippery thighs suggest her freedom from grasp; it also creates a negative for man, an insufficiency to fully cup, or satisfy the fat black womans body.