Second-Person Narration and Self-Reflectivity: The Effectivity of the Narrative Technique in Empathizing with and Identifying the “Other” in N.K. Jemisin’s The Broken Earth (2015-17) Trilogy

Abstract

ABSTRACT The paper aims to disabuse the critics of their consensus regarding the strangeness and unpredictability of the second-person “you” and subsequently highlight the potential that it possesses. While exploring the ambiguous yet multi-faceted identities of the “other” has often been one of the central concerns of the black science fiction and fantasy genre, the employment of second-person narration to reconcile the dilemma posed by the ambivalent selves of the “other” is the hallmark of science fiction and fantasy writer N.K. Jemisin’s The Broken Earth trilogy (2015–17). To that end, the paper attempts to close read the alternate identification and displacement feature of “you” as an effective technique to construct the “black female identity” that is constituted of fluid and multi-dimensional representations of female selves. It also highlights the self-reflective nature, that is, the tendency of the “you” in the text to reflect on its own slippery self while concurrently negotiating with the refracted selves of Essun. The final section engages with the significance of second-person narration in the theory of mind debate and how Jemisin’s execution of it makes the story of Essun readily available to the readers by making them partake of her experience, thus triggering the readers’ empathy.