The child narrator in George Lamming's in the castle of my skin

Abstract

The prime concern of this study is to give critical attention to George Lamming's use of a child narrator in the novel, In the Castle of My Skin. The narrative, told from a child's perspective, recounts the ways in which Barbadian society was organised under colonialism. The study is divided into three chapters, two of which are concerned with elements ofthe narrative voices in the novel. The first chapter gives the introduction and provides a brief literary biography of Lamming. It outlines the statement of the problem under study, its objectives, hypotheses, justification, and the literature review relevant to the study. The chapter also sets out the theoretical framework that guides the study, and the methodology followed and the scope and limitations of the research. The second chapter first explains the concept of child narration, and then situates the study in a wider literary context before focusing on the child narrator in the novel under study. We focus on Lamming's choice of a child narrator and analyse the issues he raises through this narrative mode. The third chapter is concerned with the narrative voices that exist alongside that of the child in the novel. This chapter recognises the author's effort to surmount the possible limitations of a child narrator. We examine the role of these other voices in complementing that of the child narrator. The conclusion is a statement on the choice and effectiveness of the child narrator in communicating the author's vision for the Caribbean people. While this study adopts a stylistic approach to the novel, it does not overlook the significance of style in communicating content. The mutual relationship between theme and style is enhanced by the formalist approach employed, which acknowledges the role of the narrative voice in concretising the themes treated in the novel. The study reveals that the choice of a child narrator in Lamming's novel has the effect of presenting the reality of colonial Barbados in a most sincere manner, owing to the innocence of the child in observing society. What emerges at the end of the study is Lamming's view that a child's perspective is the most viable in capturing the effects of colonialism on the Caribbean individual. The study finds out that Lamming uses the child narrator to truthfully present the state of affairs in colonial Barbados, and the effects of colonialism on the Caribbean society