Quest for Identity and Cultural Reclamation and Realignment in Earl Lovelace’s Oeuvre
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.24113/ijohmn.v8i1.243Keywords:
Caribbean literature, Identity, history, Self-reclamation, Earl LovelaceAbstract
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 sociocultural 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.
Downloads
Metrics
References
Lovelace, E. 1965. While Gods are Falling. London: Collins
¬¬¬__________ 1968. The Schoolmaster. London: Collins
__________1979. The Dragon Can't Dance London: Longman
__________ 1982. The Wine of Astonishment .London: Heinemann
___________1996. Salt. London: Hienemann
Aiyejina, F. ed. 2003 . Growing in the Dark Selected: Essays. San Juan, Trinidad: Lexicon Trinidad Ltd
__________ 2005. Unmasking the chantwell narrator in Earl Lovelace’s fiction. Authurium. Vol 3.2. pp 1-11
Ashcroft, B. Griffiths, G. Tiffin, H. 1989. The post-colonial studies reader. New York: Routledge
Benjamin, J ed. 2001. The novel since 1970: A history of the literature in the Caribbean in English and Dutch speaking regions. Amsterdam: postprint
Cumber Dance, D. 1986. Fifty Caribbean Writers. A bio-bibliographical critical sourcebook. London: Greenwood press
Deepak, T.R. 2014. An evaluation of Caribbean postcolonial culture in Earl Lovelace’s The Dragon Cant Dance. International Journal of English Language, Literature and Humanities. Vol 2.2. pp 195-204
Harney, S. 2006. Nationalism and identity culture and the imagination in a Caribbean diaspora. Jamaica: University of West Indies press. P. 31-52
Hodge, M. 2006. The language of Earl Lovelace. Authurium. Vol 4.2. pp. 1-7
Logan, M. 2009. Postcoloniality and resistance in Earl Lovelace’s The Wine of Astonishment and
The Dragon Cant Dance. Network of Scientific Journals from Latin America, the Caribbean, Spain and Portugal. Vol 9.18. pp 553-572
Lovelace, E. 1982. Engaging the World," Wasafiri, The ATCAL Journal, 1:1
__________ 1993. The writers forum: Earl Lovelace. Contributions in Black studies. A journal of African and Afro America studies. Vol 11.9. p. 1-3
Meeks, B. 1999. The harder dragon: modalities of resistance in Lovelace’s The Dragon Cant Dance and Thelwell’s Harder they Come. Jamaica: University of West Indies press
Perejoan, M.G. 2014. The grass that cut and trample and dig out and sprouts roots again: the spiritual Baptist church in Earl Lovelace’s The Wine of Astonishment. Coolabah. P.13-20
Perez-Montijo, E. 2013. Review of Caribbean literature after independence: the case of Earl Lovelace. Authurium. Vol 10.1. pp 1-6
Puri, S. 2003. Beyond resistance: notes toward a new Caribbean cultural studies. Small axe. Vol 7:2 pp 23-38
Sembene, O. 1993. Back matter contributions in Black studies. A journal of African and Afro American studies. Vol 11.16. p.1-14
Thompson- Cage, C. 1986. Earl Lovelace: a bibliography. Contributions in Black studies. vol 8.8 pp 1-6
Udofia, J. 2013. The history and shaping of Caribbean literature. American journal of humanities and social sciences. Vol 1.2 pp. 56-62
Published
How to Cite
Issue
Section
License
Copyright (c) 2022 Adelokun Adetunji Oluwapelumi
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.
You are free to:
- Share — copy and redistribute the material in any medium or format
- Adapt — remix, transform, and build upon the material
- for any purpose, even commercially.
-
Under the following terms:
-
Attribution — You must give appropriate credit, provide a link to the license, and indicate if changes were made. You may do so in any reasonable manner, but not in any way that suggests the licensor endorses you or your use.
- No additional restrictions — You may not apply legal terms or technological measures that legally restrict others from doing anything the license permits.
-