The Trial of Joseph Knight
- Submitting institution
-
University of Northumbria at Newcastle
- Unit of assessment
- 27 - English Language and Literature
- Output identifier
- 33360975
- Type
- I - Performance
- Venue(s)
- BBC Radio 4
- Open access status
- -
- Month of first performance
- July
- Year of first performance
- 2018
- URL
-
-
- Supplementary information
-
-
- Request cross-referral to
- -
- Output has been delayed by COVID-19
- No
- COVID-19 affected output statement
- -
- Forensic science
- No
- Criminology
- No
- Interdisciplinary
- No
- Number of additional authors
-
0
- Research group(s)
-
-
- Proposed double-weighted
- No
- Reserve for an output with double weighting
- No
- Additional information
- The Trial Of Joseph Knight, investigates what happens when ideas drawn from the American philosophical movement of post-blackness are applied to the literary genre of British historical fiction. Its dramaturgy explores the intertwining of race and racism in a way that both rejects their interaction and redefines complex notions of blackness, whilst also conforming to conventions of the genre (an essential element of historical fiction is that it is set in the past and pays attention to the manners, social conditions and other details of the depicted period).
Using first person narration to frame the story and focusing on Knight’s Scottishness instead of his blackness, the radio play centres on a character rooted in but not restricted by Blackness. It thus draws on the work of essayists Debra Dickerson and Touré Neblett. The resulting production operates simultaneously as historical fiction (exploring notable historical figures in an 18th century setting, allowing listeners to understand how these individuals might have responded to their environments), and as post-black art, rejecting the idea that everything Knight does must speak to or for or about an entire race. This both disrupts the immense burden of race-wide representation and challenges the dangerous myths that black people have only been part of Britain’s history for a very short time.
The Radio play has been disseminated nationally. It was initially broadcast on BBC Radio 4 in 2018, then rebroadcast in 2020. It has been adapted into a new stage play called ‘Enough of Him’, which will be produced by The National Theatre of Scotland and published by Bloomsbury in 2021. A small section of the radio play was adapted into a short film in 2020 by the BBC, which reached over 110,000 households. It has been optioned and is currently in development as a feature with Northstar Films.
- Author contribution statement
- -
- Non-English
- No
- English abstract
- -