"They don't imagine how we live over here": A Study of Black Migrant's Sense of Ambivalence and In-betweenness in Winsome Pinnock's Leave Taking

Authors

  • Jwan Adil Mohammed Department of English, College of Education Kalar, Sulaimany, Kurdistan Region of Iraq Garmian University
  • Snoor Ismaeel Mahmud Department of English, College of Education Kalar, Sulaimany, Kurdistan Region of Iraq Garmian University

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.21271/zjhs.26.6.22

Abstract

Since the 1950s, the migratory experience and cross-cultural fusion have become a subject of different social, political, and cultural discussions. The settlement of immigrants in Britain and the continuous arrival of asylum seekers from former colonies of the British Empire have sparked the investigation of identity crisis, ambivalence, assimilation, and diversity that have accordingly been reflected in literary works of Black British Diaspora.

Winsome Pinnock, a black British dramatist, is one of several blacks and Asian women who have written plays that reflect the issues of first- and second-generation migrants in Britain. She explores how immigrants adjust to life in Britain in her play Leave Taking, at times rejecting, at other times embracing, the memory of their homeland. The study attempts to analyze the sense of in-betweenness and ambivalence experienced by the first and second-generation migrants in the light of the postcolonial theories of Homi K. Bhabha, Edward Said, and Frantz Fanon. It argues that as diasporic subjects, the characters are stranded in between two worlds- the homeland and host country. Moreover, it concludes that the characters under the impact of cultural interaction become alien and foreigners in host country as well in their homeland.

Published

2022-12-25

How to Cite

Adil Mohammed, J. ., & Ismaeel Mahmud, S. . (2022). "They don’t imagine how we live over here": A Study of Black Migrant’s Sense of Ambivalence and In-betweenness in Winsome Pinnock’s Leave Taking. Zanco Journal of Human Sciences, 26(6), 370–379. https://doi.org/10.21271/zjhs.26.6.22

Issue

Section

Articles