Construction of Hybrid Identity in Samuel Selvon’s The Lonely Londoners and Moses Ascending

Abstract

Samuel Selvon (1923-1994) is an outstanding figure in Caribbean literature. His Moses trilogy is very famous because of his preoccupation with issues of identity and culture. His two representative works The Lonely Londoners and Moses Ascending giving a vivid description of Creole immigrants’ life in London, have a far-reaching influence on postcolonial literature. The thesis attempts to employ Homi Bhabha’s theory of hybridity to elaborate the formation of cultural identity. The thesis consists of three parts. Part One is Introduction, which gives a brief introduction to the author, his two works, the theoretical framework. Part Two presents the dilemma in which the Creoles have to face on cultural identity. In the aspect of cultural identity, the Creoles experience the process from identical crisis to the construction of hybrid identity. Part Three is Conclusion. Based on the above analyses, the thesis draws the conclusion that different cultures can influence each other. The effective way to solve identical crisis is to build the hybrid identity.