Counterbalancing Single Stories on Migration: The Subversion of Stereotypical Representations in Chika Unigwe’s Better Never Than Late

Abstract

This dissertation explores how Chika Unigwe’s Better Never Than Late counterbalances several stereotypes on migration that are circulated by Western discourses. More precisely, it discusses how the short story collection makes use of its own fictionality to subvert and shed new light on these stereotypical representations. For this purpose, I have used Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie’s concept of the single story (i.e., the one-sided and oversimplified portrayal of people or places) as basis of my interpretative process. This allowed this dissertation to point out how Better Never Than Late deceptively plays into single stories on migration to complete them, complexify them, and ultimately challenge their potency.