ABSTRACT
This chapter engages with literary depictions of racialization and recognition. Taking up Ta-Nehisi Coates’ memoir Between the World and Me and Yahya Hassan’s poetry collection Yahya Hassan, I flesh out different ways in which minority writers call for recognition via aesthetic means. Coates has denied being involved in a struggle for recognition in relation to white people. However, by paying attention to the letter format of Between the World, I claim that his memoir does, in fact, demand recognition for the historic crime committed against Black people from the people who committed it, that is, the white majority. Yahya Hassan, on the other hand, articulates a rather different recognition demand in relation to the injuries of racialization. Via a distinct sense of clarity afforded by the capital letter format, an engagement with manifesto stylistics, and a nod to the combative mood in rap-music, his poetry breaks down binaries and redefines what racialized minorities are supposed to do and say - and ultimately calls on readers to recognize his right to splinter racial categories.
