Minor genres and marginal realities: Kei Miller’s blog posts and Facebook notes

Abstract

In his blog posts and Facebook notes, Jamaican author Kei Miller writes about his experiences in Glasgow and the US, emphasizing the different “realities” and notions of “reality” coexisting in these places. More specifically, Miller’s writings call attention to the hierarchies operating to elevate some “realities” and silence others. This article argues that Miller’s pieces can be regarded as a hybrid of two minor genres, the blog and the essay, as well as of the subgenre of creative non-fiction. This hybridity mirrors and illuminates some of the themes explored in the writings, such as authenticity, authority, subjectivity and voice. When Miller’s online posts are read alongside his essays – and precisely because they are in a virtual space that allows for contributions from his readers in the comment section – they help to expose the hierarchies that he writes about, and demonstrate the urgency of giving voice to marginalized realities.

Keywords:

• Kei Miller
• blogs
• Facebook
• genre
• postcolonialism
• Caribbean literature