Browsing by Subject "British society"
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Item Formation of Identity through Acculturation: A Comparative Study of Smith’s White Teeth and Adichie’s Americanah(Faculty of English, 2018) Niraula, SanjeevThis research work examines the relationships between acculturation and identity formation in Zadie Smith’s White Teeth and Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie’s Americanah. The narrative unfolds the experience of first and second generation immigrants in new cultural locations of England and America.White Teeth narrates the story of Samad, an immigrant from Bangladesh who migrates to London and becomes an Englishman being influenced by British culture but ultimately turns to his own Islamic culture. Samad’s son Magid born in England, follows British culture but the experience of discrimination makes him realize his ‘otherness’ in British society. Americanah projects the story of Ifemelu, a teenager from Nigeria who migrates to the United States to pursue her study. In her attempt to assimilate herself into American society, she begins following American culture and values. Later on, she returns to her own country Nigeria due to the experience of racism in America. Ifemelu’s cousin Dike also undergoes the experience of racial discrimination in America. Due to the lack of connection to the cultural root, he lives an in-between life. To examine these issue of acculturation in the novels, the research work blends the concept of acculturation, acculturation strategies and acculturation stress as developed by John W. Berry, David L. Sam and others. Similarly, the concept of culture and identity is elaborated with reference to Stuart Hall’s notion of cultural identity. Likewise, Homi K. Bhabha’s concept of mimicry is taken into consideration to examine the in-between state of the second generation immigrants in the novels.Item Sense of loss, Nostalgia and Irony in Rebecca West’s The Return of the Soldier(Department of English, 2012) Tripathi, Devi RamanThis research work examines how war-generated sense of loss and nostalgia are expressed ironically in Rebecca West’s novel The Return of the Soldier. The novel combines the ironic sense of loss, nostalgia and the ironic consequences of the war in order to reflect the reality of the British society during the World War I through the narration of a character Jenny. The study mainly focuses on how the characters in the novel suffer from the ironic effect of the war, sense of loss and nostalgia. Illness, destruction, fragmentations, loss and reversal of gender role are the main ideas of the narration. People and the society are unable to gain their idyllic past that the characters seem to be longing for. The major characters like Kitty, Jenny, Margaret and Chris expose the real picture of the ironic situations of war, nostalgia and sense of loss in ironic way. Similarly, West’s political irony can be seen when she subverts the gender role by giving feminine characteristics to a male character Chris and manly characteristics to the female characters Margaret and Jenny.