“It wasn’t always like this”: Displacement and the Poetics of Gentrification in Ross Raisin’s Waterline (2011) and Lisa Blower’s Sitting Ducks (2016)

Bentley, Nicholas

Abstract

This article examines narratives of gentrification with respect to post-industrial landscapes in the context of contemporary Britain. As Tom Slater (2009) has argued, underneath the rhetoric of regeneration and renewal, gentrification often involves the economic and cultural displacement of established communities and individuals. Through critical analyses of two contemporary British novels – Ross Raisin’s Waterline (2011) set in Glasgow and London, and Lisa Blower’s Sitting Ducks (2016) set in the English Midlands city of Stoke-on-Trent – the article explores the way in which marginalized individuals navigate social processes beyond their control. Through its focus on what the article calls the poetics of gentrification – which is defined as the rendering of that process into fictional characterizations, settings, positioning of perspectives, and plotlines – it shows how fiction can provide a nuanced representation of the affective experience of displacement which contributes to our overall understanding of gentrification as a social and cultural phenomenon.

Citation

Bentley, N. (2025). “It wasn’t always like this”: Displacement and the Poetics of Gentrification in Ross Raisin’s Waterline (2011) and Lisa Blower’s Sitting Ducks (2016). English Studies, 1-17. https://doi.org/10.1080/0013838x.2024.2446873

• Journal Article Type: Article
• Acceptance Date: Dec 9, 2024
• Online Publication Date: Jan 28, 2025
• Publication Date: Jan 28, 2025
• Deposit Date: Dec 20, 2024
• Publicly Available Date: Dec 20, 2024
• Journal: English Studies
• Print ISSN: 0013-838X
• Electronic ISSN: 1744-4217
• Publisher: Routledge
• Peer Reviewed: Peer Reviewed
• Pages: 1-17
• DOI: https://doi.org/10.1080/0013838x.2024.2446873
• Public URL: https://keele-repository.worktribe.com/output/1018938
• Publisher URL: https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/0013838X.2024.2446873