The Emigrants (Ann Arbor Paperbacks)
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Book Overview
The Emigrants is an elaborately conceived novel, dense with dynamic characters and evocative details. First published in 1954, it focuses initially on the emigrant journey, then on the settling-in process. The journey by sea and subsequent attempts at resettlement provide the fictional framework for Lamming's exploration of the alienation and displacement caused by colonialism.
This is the epic journey of a group of West Indians who emigrate to Great Britain in the 1950s in search of educational opportunities unattainable at home. Seeking to redefine themselves in the "mother country," an idealized landscape that they have been taught to revere, the emigrants settle uncomfortably in England's industrial cities. Within two years, ghettoization is firmly in place. The emigrants discover the meaning of their marginality in the British Empire in an environment that is unexpectedly hostile and strange. For some, alienation prompts a new sense of community, a new sense of identity as West Indians. For others, alienation leads to a crisis of confrontation with the law and fugitive status.
There is a wealth of information here about the genesis of the black British community and about the cultural differences between the black British and West Indian/Caribbean.
This is the epic journey of a group of West Indians who emigrate to Great Britain in the 1950s in search of educational opportunities unattainable at home. Seeking to redefine themselves in the "mother country," an idealized landscape that they have been taught to revere, the emigrants settle uncomfortably in England's industrial cities. Within two years, ghettoization is firmly in place. The emigrants discover the meaning of their marginality in the British Empire in an environment that is unexpectedly hostile and strange. For some, alienation prompts a new sense of community, a new sense of identity as West Indians. For others, alienation leads to a crisis of confrontation with the law and fugitive status.
There is a wealth of information here about the genesis of the black British community and about the cultural differences between the black British and West Indian/Caribbean.
Format:Paperback
Language:English
ISBN:0472064703
ISBN13:9780472064700
Release Date:May 1994
Publisher:University of Michigan Press
Length:298 Pages
Weight:0.87 lbs.
Dimensions:0.8" x 5.3" x 8.2"
Customer Reviews
1 rating
Immigration and Loss of Identity
Published by Thriftbooks.com User , 25 years ago
In Things Fall Apart Chinua Achebe narrates the disruptive effect European colonisation has on old tribal ways of life. In George Lamming's The Emigrants (1954)the movement is the other way round: a group of West Indians immigrates to London in search of a better future. During the voyage on the ship, told as a kind of rite of passage from their old to the new world, they share past experiences, dreams, hopes and ambitions. The voyage however doesn't prepare them for the life of outcasts that awaits them in London, and the subsequent loss of identity. The form of the narrative adjusts itself to its theme: its continuous flow, which narrates the voyage, breaks up into several trails following the individual destinies that lose themselves in the smoke of London. Though not as great as In The Castle of my Skin, which I think Mr. Lamming's greatest novel, it is an intense book about immigration, cultural chock and loss of identity.
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