"It is easier to be than to become": Navigating Metamorphic Identities in Barrett's "Blackass"

This dissertation discusses the novel “Blackass” by Igoni Barrett, focusing on the Kafkian metamorphoses experienced by the protagonists: Furo Wariboko, a Black man turning into a white man, and Igoni, transitioning into womanhood. Drawing from postcolonial theory and gender studies, this analysis investigates how these transformations disrupt normative frameworks of race and gender. Ultimately, this study reveals how identity is not an innate biological fact, but rather a socially and historically shaped construct, as well as a bodily lived experience which cannot be fully reduced to theoretical frameworks.