The Quest for Identity: An Analysis of Langston Hughes's The Big Sea

Authors

  • Priya Juneja Ph.D. Research Scholar, Gujarat University, Gujarat, India

Keywords:

Autobiography, Identity, Marginality, Blacks or African-American

Abstract

The history of human civilization, culture and progress tells that, in major parts of the world, the powered class had remained at the centre and remaining major community remained at the fringe. The powered class, without considering egalitarian ideology either on the base of religion or rational, preferred their prosperity first and neglected the other community. The marginal community remained unnoticed and were just puppets in the hands of the powered class. They did not have their identity or power to protest or put forth their individual or collective thought before the society. Autobiography paves way for the search for the identity of the marginalized. Identity is one of the most contested issues in marginal literature. The identity, the symbol of voice is not just the author's but of a whole community. Thus, it is not a one man's identity we are looking into but the identity of a whole community which the author tries to represent.

Author Biography

Priya Juneja, Ph.D. Research Scholar, Gujarat University, Gujarat, India

Priya Juneja is pursuing her Ph.D. in English Literature from Gujarat University under the guidance of Dr A.K Patel. She is M.A., M.Phil in English Literature. She has teaching experience of about six to seven years in college and had taught to undergraduate as well as postgraduate students. She has taught a wide range of subjects comprising Research Methodology, Communicative English, Functional English, Fiction- Non-Fiction, American Literature and Indian Western Dramas. She can be reached at junejapriya619@gmail.com

References

Bhongle, R. "Dalit Literature and African-American Literature: A Comparative Study." Literature of Marginality: Dalit Literature and African-American Literature, edited by N. M Aston, Prestige Books, 2001.

Essien-Udom, E.U. “Black Identity in the International Context.” Key Issues in the Afro-American Experience, edited by Nathan I. Huggins et al., Harcourt Brace Jovanovich, 1971.

Hughes, Langston. The Big Sea. Hill and Wang, 1993.

Mostern, Kenneth. Autobiography and Black Identity Politics. Cambridge University Press, 1999.

Olney, James. Metaphors of Self, The Meaning of Autobiography. Princeton University Press, 1972.

Rampersad, Arnold. "The Life of Langston Hughes (1914-1967)". I Dream a World, Vol. 2, Oxford University Publications, 2002.

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Published

30.04.2018

How to Cite

Priya Juneja. (2018). The Quest for Identity: An Analysis of Langston Hughes’s The Big Sea. Journal of Teaching and Research in English Literature, 9(2), 20–28. Retrieved from https://journals.eltai.in/index.php/jtrel/article/view/63

Issue

Vol. 9 No. 2 (2018): April

Section

Research Articles

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