RESISTING DOMINANT CULTURE IN THE LONELY LONDONERS: A CRITICAL DISCOURSE ANALYSIS

Kawa Sherwani,Saman Dizayi

doi:10.18769/ijasos.592090

Abstract

This paper investigates the resistance of immigrants to cultural dominance of London society in The Lonely Londoners, a postcolonial novel by Sam Selvon. The Lonely Londoners (1956) depicts the miserable life of Caribbean people who migrated in hope to find better condition of living than their countries. The paper furnishes a theoretic ground for analyzing the discourse of the novel which presents the subject of resisting dominant culture throughout events and language used by the novelist. The paradigm of immigrants, their trauma and shock have always been the spot line of discussion after WWII. Through the colonial history there was a dominant discourse of Western cultural superiority imposed on colonized, with the postcolonial era a different discourse emerged through intellectual presentations such as Fanon, Said, Bhabha ideas and others who enlightened literary theory and criticism and theorized resistance and cultural identity. Thus, this paper will critically analyze the discourse of resistance of Postcolonial people in exile to ascertain their existence and identity. Keywords: Post colonialism, Discourse analysis, Resistance, Identity

Highlights

During the 18th century and the most part of the 19th century, the western countries have taken over the major part of the world
The racism which was depicted by the local Londoners in particular with the black people who were migrating from Trinidad and other West African countries were subjected to the cultural dominance and white supremacy throughout the country (Bonds & Inwood, 2016, pp. 715-733)
The paper investigates the concept of resistance in the novel written by Sam Selvon according to critical discourse analysis, and determines the method of addressing the notion of resistance The Lonely Londoners adopted throughout literary elements the novelist practiced

Summary

INTRODUCTION

During the 18th century and the most part of the 19th century, the western countries have taken over the major part of the world. With different countries including the Netherlands, Portugal and especially the Britain have made countless colonies to the countries across the globe This colonial era has led the world to have that effect of white supremacy in their mind which emphasizes on the point that a person is considered superior purely by skin color that a person possesses. After this particular time, when the concept of colonization was at a decline, the majority of the people from the colonized countries sought better future heades towards the above mentioned European countries. The novelist made special emphasis on this matter which is defined by the fact that during the post-colonial era where there were many problems faced the whole black community living in London at that time (Kapur, 2017, pp. 61-112)

METHODOLOGY

CRITICAL ANALYSIS OF THE NOVEL

CONCLUSION