Alienation in Caribbean literature with special reference to the works of George Lamming

Abstract

In this study, alienation is understood as a situation in which the majorities in the Caribbean are peripheral to; estranged from their world because they have always been held in economic bondage, and dependent upon this, in cultural bondage as well. Secondly, that the author in railing to grasp the. real cause and trends 'or this bondage within history, and in railing to pave the directions for society in a contemporary world is also thereby estranged from these majorities. The study argues that Caribbean literature cannot be understood independently or the history and the economy of the Caribbean society. This society was founded for only One purpose - the production or the raw materials that were necessary (later) for European Industrialisation. The society was "controlled" by absentee-landlords, while those who journeyed there -- European overseers, African thralls and Asian indentured labourers were forcibly ejected out of their communities. They all shared in a common estrangement from their original homelands............