Identity Crisis in Jamaica Kincaid’s Lucy (1990)
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Date
2021
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Larbi Ben M’hidi University-Oum El Bouaghi
Abstract
This research aims at exploring the reasons behind the identity crisis of the eponymous character in Lucy written by Jamaica Kincaid in 1990. It explains this crisis through the use of mother-daughter relationship which implies the relation between the colonizer and the colonized. Consequently, it shows that Lucy's identity crisis represents a recurrent theme in Caribbean literature, and more importantly, it refers to Caribbean identity that is basically characterized by rootlessness and search for identity through voluntary exile. Then, this work argues that the exile does not help the character find one's self or forget her past. The only positive side of this exile, one may say, that it contributes to Lucy's education as a young woman and teaches her that even if she flees her past and community she will never get rid of them because they live inside her. Moreover, this study aims to reveal that Lucy's crisis can be explained from Sigmund Freud's psychosexual phases, namely, the oral and the genital. It argues that Lucy suffered from a trauma in these two phases that led to her crisis.
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Keywords
Psychosexual phases : Lucy, Caribbean literature : Kincaid, Identity (rootlessness)