The Giving Up of Greer: The Hypocrisy at the Heart of the Janus-Faced Empire : Writing Back Against the British Imperial Discourse

Abstract: The aim of this essay is to examine the tension at the heart of the British colonial discourse as it affects the relationship of Travis and Joyce in the chapter "Somewhere in England", in Caryl Phillips's 1993 novel, Crossing the River. The thesis of the essay is that the colonial discourse of the British insists on a racial signifier in the imagined community of the British, and thus resists the idea that a person can be both black and British. The postcolonial analysis shows that it is Joyce's rejection of the national discourse along with the displacement of Travis from a segregated America into a superficially kinder environment that allows their relationship to develop. Yet, along with Travis's death, the contradictions and hypocrisy of the colonial discourse serve to undermine Joyce's lack of racial prejudice and contribute to her giving up her baby at the end of the war.