Quest for Identity and Cultural Reclamation and Realignment in Earl Lovelace’s Oeuvre

Abstract

This paper is an attempt to conduct a cursory but critical investigation into Earl Lovelace’s oeuvre. Earl Lovelace’s impact in the Caribbean literary tradition cannot be overemphasized. His creative pieces reflects the motif of search for identity and self-reclamation. The cultural and traditional lives of the Caribbean people before the interaction with imperialistic power is emphasized in the creative outputs of Earl Lovelace. This paper analyses the literary deftness and creative imagination of the critically acclaimed writer from the Caribbean literary tradition. The Caribbean literary tradition is renowned for its reflection of the socio-cultural history and reality of the Caribbean people. The core of literary documentations from this region hinges on the perennial search for identity and grappling with the reality that the Caribbean history is all about. Earl Lovelace presents different facets of these thematic preoccupations through his oeuvre. The paper concludes that Earl Lovelace’s works amplifies his grasp of the quest for identity on which the Caribbean existence is premised. His works reflect the history, politics, culture, and tradition of the post-independence Caribbean milieu