EXCLUSION AND REVOLUTION: AN EXPLORATION OF JJ AMAWORO WILSON'S NOVEL NAZARÉ
Vol.12, Issue 1, 2026, pp. 23-35 Full text: PDF . HTML
DOI: https://doi.org/10.33919/esnbu.26.1.2
Web of Science: [WOS=]
Author:
Antony Hoyte-West https://orcid.org/0000-0003-4410-6520
Affiliation: Nottingham Trent University, Nottingham, United Kingdom 04xyxjd90
Abstract
With exclusion and domination common themes in many world literatures, this exploratory study examines the portrayal of these topics in Nazaré, a prize-winning 2021 novel by JJ Amaworo Wilson. The book, which is set in a fictional dystopian city-state called Balaal, charts the story of Kin, a young street urchin who is prophesised to lead a revolution against the territory's hated ruling clan, the Matanzas. After briefly outlining the author's background and previous works, the study presents and analyses how aspects relating to exclusion and domination are depicted in the novel. It takes four selected excerpts from different sections of the work as a point of departure which were chosen for the way in which they particularly highlight these themes. Using close reading as the chosen method of textual analysis, these sections are evaluated with the aim of illustrating how these aspects are portrayed and transformed over the course of the narrative as a whole.
Keywords: domination, exclusion, dystopian fiction, revolution, 21st-century literature, Nazaré
Article history:
Submitted: 2 January 2025
Reviewed: 3 February 2026
Accepted: 10 March 2026
Published: 20 June 2026
Citation (APA):
Hoyte-West, A. (2026). Exclusion and revolution in JJ Amaworo Wilson's novel Nazaré. English Studies at NBU, 12(1), 23-35. https://doi.org/10.33919/esnbu.26.1.2
Copyright © 2026 Antony Hoyte-West
This is an Open Access article published and distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License (CC BY 4.0), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.
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Handling Editor: Stan Bogdanov, New Bulgarian University
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