Yousfi, SoumiaAaid, Salah Eddine2021-11-082021-11-082021http://hdl.handle.net/123456789/11730Minority groups in post-war Britain suffered from numerous forms of racism and discrimination. They were not seen as equals and never good enough to fit in British society. Hanif Kureishi entered the zeitgeist of the time through his writings. The Buddha of Suburbia shows how racism spread widely in society the thing that made it difficult for immigrants to find their identities. They lost their sense of belonging. Immigrants became haunted by melancholia. This research examines the process of finding alternative ways of belonging. Kureishi explores the navigation of identity in 1970s Britain to display how the nation's inability to mourn the loss of the Empire resulted in a state of denial. This denial put Britain in a state of postcolonial melancholia and made minority groups experience melancholy of race. The method implemented in this study is psychoanalysis and the theoretical insights of racial melancholia that are borrowed from critical race theory. Because melancholia is a psychological as much as psychotic phenomenon, the implemented method is deemed to be the best tool to reveal what is hidden and repressed. Critical race theory is relevant in the sense that the writer is of a mixed-race origin and the novel primarily deals with race. Kureishi criticizes morality and old traditions in a gently humorous way using wit and satire. He also calls for the revision of Britishness. The novel shows how characters at the beginning are chaotic and lost with no sense of belonging. By the end of the novel, however, characters manifest a decent amount of change as they successfully find other ways of belonging. This research demonstrates how melancholia can be productive and a source of empowerment.enRacial melancholiaPostcolonial melancholiaMourningOther