Donovan Allen

English Literature and Neuroscience Majors, Chinese Minor

Hello!  My name is Donovan Allen, and I’m a rising sophomore in the Dietrich School of Arts and Sciences. I received the Brackenridge Fellowship to support my work in literary and cultural studies. For my project, I am analyzing the novels Beloved and The Bluest Eye by Toni Morrison and exploring the ways in which these two novels serve as counternarratives against the coloniality pervasive in the American literary canon, with the help of my mentor Professor Shaun Myers (English Department), who has been invaluable to me during my research.  I frame my analysis using a wide range of postcolonial scholarship, with the works of Toni Morrison and Edward Said as my main sources. My interest in this work grew as I watched the surge in book banning across the U.S. over recent years.  As would-be censors challenge the place of diverse voices in the classroom, it is important to consider the purpose and power of literature.  The banned novels I study, and those like them, certainly do include “explicit” material, as often claimed by book banners. The true “explicit” materials in question, however, are the historically frank counternarratives that authors such as Morrisons create to challenge dominant narratives.  In this era of censorship, analysis of such counternarratives becomes even more important, illustrating for us as Americans the value of contesting the oft-discriminatory narratives we inevitably encounter.  I intend to pursue the study of coloniality in the American canon even after my undergraduate degree, and I’m grateful to have received the Brackenridge Fellowship to further my research and development as a scholar in this field. I am excited to be able to pursue my research in a community that will help me think outside my field but also challenge my perceptions within my particular field.