IMMIGRATION A BLESSING OR INFLICTION: A DIASPORIC PERSPECTIVE OF YVONNE OWUOUR THE DRAGONFLY SEA
Keywords:
Alienation, Cultural Identity, Diaspora, Exile, Homesickness, Hybridity, Immigration, Infliction, Nostalgia, RacismAbstract
This study explores the issues of immigration in Yvonne Owuor’s The Dragonfly Sea (2019) with a focus on whether immigration is a blessing or infliction for Ayaana, Munira, and Muhidin. How these Kenyan characters move from Kenya to China. The study highlights the issues of displacement, discovery, and immigration. An analysis of the intimate engagements that key characters in the novel have with the immigration helps to illustrate the centrality of the diaspora, displacement, and discovery. Under the lens of Diaspora Theory, the study will discuss William Safran and Stuart Hall's concept of Cultural Identity. Diaspora means the scattering or dispersion of people from their homeland. In order to bring the issues of diaspora into centre, Owuor’s this novel needs to be analysed from the perspective of immigration and displacement. This qualitative study aims to analyse how African immigrants become estranged especially those who identify as Afro-Chinese and consider the complex relationships between race, family, heritage, society that shape Chinese lives. Furthermore, the study aims to show how different factors cause immigration in the protagonist of the selected text. The research scholars of diaspora will get benefit from the findings of this work.
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