The Literary Making of Home(land)

Abstract

This article discusses the role literature plays in shaping 'home' as an ideological site of the spatial imaginary by drawing on Lloyd Jones' novel Mister Pip (2006) as a case study. Special emphasis is placed on analysing how ideals of home are rooted in 'cultures of subjectivity' (Reckwitz 2012). I systematically tease out two paradigms of home in Mister Pip and comment on their social implications within a postcolonial context. As I show, literature features as the privileged model of home in Mister Pip. This ideal of home is connected to a specific form of subjectivity, namely the 'creative self' (Reckwitz 2012). By shifting my attention to issues of reader response, I argue that Mister Pip 'trains' its readers in practices of the creative self, thereby contributing to a specific form of homemaking. I conclude with a critical assessment of Jones' literary achievement in the light of postcolonial power relations.