Cultural Hybridity: Identity Crisis and Alienation in Ralph Ellison'sJuneteenth
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Department of English
Abstract
Ralph Ellison'sJuneteenthmovesaround cultural hybridity, which
incorporates identity crisis of the hybrid subject, Adam Sunraider. The father
of the protagonist has no definite identity although he grows up in black
culture and spends his childhood under the care of black preacher, Hickman.
When Sunraider becomes young, he feels identity crisis, moves towards North
and becomes a racist Senator. After his shooting, he meets with daddy
Hickman and tries to rejoin back to his past culture of South with out much
success. The hybrid subjectwho always suffers from a sense of identity
crisis, is alienated his previous culture. This thesis tries to show how loss of
sense of belonging to the past culture leads to the character's sense of
alienation and identity crisis. Even negotiation cannot give total satisfaction
to the alienated subject, for he cannot completely assimilate to either of the
culture: the past and the present, which make their claim upon him.