Décalage and borderscaping in Dinaw Mengestu’s The Beautiful Things that Heaven Bears

Abstract

This article examines how bordering practices can play significant roles in liberating black diaspora formation from racial and historical positionings. Through the use of Brent Hayes Edwards’ concept of décalage, I propose that the space of black immigrant can be negotiated, and when doing so, negotiation allows for new forms of belongings to be produced in transnational contexts. In understanding the construction of African diaspora identity as the production of décalage, I argue that The Beautiful Things that Heaven Bears sunders its characters into individuals in a way they reshape their identities together through delaying their belonging in time and shifting positions in space. The article thus concludes that décalage is rooted in the borderscapes of black and white communities, as a space that helps characters generating new transnational identities.