Home is where the heart is : patterns of displacement in West Indian and Black American literature
Abstract
The element of the sense of home has long since been a leading issue in the literature of American immigrants. As the immigrant in the host country is restricted from creating niches to accommodate pre-existing cultural trends, the immigrant's reference to the mother county serves as an impetus to establishing an external "home." Thus, the immigrant may live in a host country indefinitely, meanwhile any emphasis on a "home" remains abroad. The nature of home is complex and appears compounded in light of the pre-literature of Black America and the West Indies. Here, the generational "immigrant" is, in actuality, a born citizen, yet, is obliged to look toward their ancestral country in claiming a homeland (many times unfamiliar). The following works; George Lamming's In the Castle of My Skin, Paule Marshall's Brown Girl, Brownstones, Richard Wright's Native Son, and finally, Zora Neale Hurston's Their Eyes Were Watching God exemplify the conditions affecting the generational "immigrant's" establishment of "home." Rejection by the host country initiates a feeling of exile. Exposed is the paradox that the immigrant searching for "home" is many times "homeless," as the immigrant finds neither ties to the ancestral homeland or to the host country. Closure to the immigrant's search is likely preceded by one's epiphany that "home" in a minority vs. majority-based culture is an internal one. This study, by comparing two minority groups whose ancestral country is Africa but who reside in different host countries, examines the awareness of race and the foundation of "home."
Notes
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Thesis Completion
1997
Semester
Summer
Advisor
Refoe, Annye L.
Degree
Bachelor of Arts (B.A.)
College
College of Arts and Sciences
Department
English
Degree Program
English Literature
Subjects
Arts and Sciences -- Dissertations, Academic;Dissertations, Academic -- Arts and Sciences
Format
Identifier
DP0021476
Language
English
Access Status
Open Access
Length of Campus-only Access
None
Document Type
Honors in the Major Thesis
Recommended Citation
Hodge, Audre, "Home is where the heart is : patterns of displacement in West Indian and Black American literature" (1997). HIM 1990-2015. 88.
https://stars.library.ucf.edu/honorstheses1990-2015/88