Identity Crises in Caryl Phillips‟s A Distant Shore (2004)
Iman Saud Dhannoon
College of Medicin , University of Tikrit
DOI: https://doi.org/10.25130/jls.5.3.19
Keywords: Caryl Phillip, upheavals, crises, colonialism, transculturalism, hybrid
Abstract
It is commonly stated that the modern era is known as the age of upheavals. Colonialism has altered people all over the world, and transculturalism has become a global phenomenon. Writers, particularly, novelists managed to depict identity crises in their literary works. The study will be based on a textual analysis of Caryl Phillips’s A Distant Shore, focusing on Homi Bhabha’s concept of ‘hybridity’, Krestiva’s ‘dislocation’ and Edward Said’s notion of ‘self-other’. The aim of the paper is to explore the themes of hybrid identities and painful negotiations based on the experience of the protagonists in the selected text. The objective of the study is to identify the characters who suffer individual mobility and the causes behind, to investigate the relationships between the immigrants and the new environment, and to show the kind of identity the immigrants will lead in the future. The research will answer the following questions: What circumstances make the protagonists migrate? How immigrants can cope with others in the new country? And how displacement affects in shaping the identity of the immigrant characters in the selected novel? The paper consists of introduction, critical comments on the text, and definitions of theoretical concepts according to the selected work, and a conclusion.
