Circum Atlantic Space and Class Identity Formation and Transformation: The Case of The European, The African and The American in The English Novel
Journal Title: Scholars Journal of Arts, Humanities and Social Sciences - Year 2015, Vol 3, Issue 2
Abstract
The argument in this paper says identities are not given but they keep changing particularly in “The New World” and this paper looks at English literature, Daniel Defoe’s Robinson Crusoe and Alexander Exquemelin’s The Buccaneers of America. Defoe shows the new avenues and possibilities of self exploration offered by the New World. In this book the concept of identity will be discussed vis-à-vis the ship, the sea, and the island chronotopes. The contention being that these alternative spaces exert certain demands and expectations on individuals which make constant adjustments and metamorphosis inevitable for both Robinson Crusoe and Friday, his servant. Meanwhile, Alexander Exquemelin’s portrays the Atlantic world with its connecting link, the ship as elastic space which can be exploited, manipulated, appropriated, and utilized for self creation, agency and subjectivity. Both Robinson Crusoe and The Buccaneers of America deal with the issue of economic subjectivity: i.e. the romanticized and idealized homo-economicus of Robinson Crusoe in his utopian island and the real world of conspiracy and piracy, extravagancy, debauchery, and waste of the buccaneers. The two texts show the honorific and the horrific ways of material accumulation and identity formation and transformation which the Atlantic space made possible from the seventeenth right up to the early nineteenth centuries. The two novels in contention show two contradictory manifestations of the ‘imperial identity’ namely the noble merchant and the despicable pirate’s quests for bullion and status.. Keywords: English literature, noble, Robinson Crusoe
Authors and Affiliations
Thinkwell Ngwenya
Keywords
Related Articles
- EP ID EP381360
- DOI -
- Views 74
- Downloads 0
The Borders of Cameroon From the Origins to the Present Day: Stakes and Challenges
Abstract: In the past, three natural elements made it possible to locate Cameroon geographically. It is indeed, from Lake Tchad, the coast and Mount Cameroon. This pre-colonial Cameroon consisted of traditional kingdoms...
The Process of Identity-seeking in The Color Purple
The Color Purple written by Alice Walker depicts the process of the female protagonist's gradual coming to her self-identity. Walker in this novel implicitly connects Celie's growth with her changing cognition of the uni...
Have attempts at developing computer based cognitive models resulted in good models? An examination of the effectiveness of computer models compared with the human mind.
This was an evaluation study which sought to answer the research question:’ Have attempts at developing computer based models resulted in good models?’ ‘Do computer operated representations work the same as the human min...
Manifest Impacts of the Qur’an on the Nigerian Muslim Ummah and the Challenges
Indeed, this Qur’an guides to the best of ways and gives glad tidings to the believers who perform good deeds that they would have a great rewardand that those who do not believe in the I Hereafter We have prepared for t...
Differentiation Strategy’ and the Growth of Private Secondary Schools in Nakuru County, Kenya
Abstract: Public expenditure in education has either remained stagnant or shrunk in real terms in most developing countries over the past years despite the significant fiscal resource allocation to education. Although cu...