Farzad Kolahjooei
Abstract
This paper depicts the lived experience of the black characters in Sam Selvon’s The Lonely Londoners with regard to the concepts of self, mind, and body. Reading Selvon in the light of Fanonian concept of epidermalization and Freudian notion of melancholia, the current research argues that the ...
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This paper depicts the lived experience of the black characters in Sam Selvon’s The Lonely Londoners with regard to the concepts of self, mind, and body. Reading Selvon in the light of Fanonian concept of epidermalization and Freudian notion of melancholia, the current research argues that the black immigrants suffer from a traumatic state of mind, which results in self-contempt, psychic disintegration, and physical disorientation. This article especially focuses on the black characters’ fascination with the white world and its cultural values to argue that the otherness assigned to the black people by the whites throughout history is strongly felt in the novel in a way that none of the black characters is able to truly manifest his/her black spirit. In its conversation with the current body of research on the topic, this paper foregrounds the black characters’ sense of lost in the metropolitan life of London to eventually argue that Selvon’s characterization moves in opposition to his empowering narrative techniques and linguistic strategies.