Claiming the Wholeness She Had Always Been Denied : Place and Identity in Michelle Cliff’s Novels Abeng and No Telephone to Heaven

• Main Author: Johannmeyer, Anke
• Format: Others
• Language: English
• Published: Uppsala universitet, Engelska institutionen 2005
• Subjects: post-colonial concepts; place; space; time; language; race; ethnicity; identity; wholeness; Michelle Cliff; West-Indies; Literature; Litteraturvetenskap
• Online Access: http://urn.kb.se/resolve?urn=urn:nbn:se:uu:diva-6027

This essay deals with the post-colonial crisis of identity in Michelle Cliff’s novels Abeng and No Telephone to Heaven, more specifically, the perception of “self” experienced by people in, and from, the former British colonies in the West-Indies. The essential aspect in this context is place. Place in post-colonial literature does not simply denote a geographical locale. Apart from the physical surroundings, place also represents a non-material environment which comprises, inter alia, sounds and scents, legends and beliefs, manners and customs. In fact, there are places which are only spiritually present in people’s lives. Even so, they have a considerable impact on the individuals’ sense of selfhood. I argue that place acts as a catalyst for the protagonists’ development of self and is central to their search for identity. By exploring the various facets of place, I will show what effects this multi-layered concept in post-colonial literature has on the characters.