Volume II Special Issue IV April 2022

Name of Author : Lavanya T G M & Dr. B Beneson Thilagar Christadoss

Title of the paper : Diaspora and Existentialism in Andrea Levys - Every Light in the House Burnin

Abstract: The history of post war Caribbean immigration is brought out in the novels of Andrea Levy. Relocation of a Jamaican family from the Caribbean to the United Kingdom is narrated by Angela the youngest of the four children in the novel Every Light in the House Burnin 1994. It is the debut novel of Andrea Levy, British writer born to Jamaican parents. Being a semi- autobiographical work it highlights the difficulties faced and the way it was overcome by a Jamaican family in 1960s London. The determination to acculturate in British society is evident in the tone of narrative by Angela. Throughout the plot Levy delineates the dilemma of belongingness in the attitude of the second generation and the choice of their parents to stay back in the hosted land as well. This paper is an attempt to reiterate how the characters in Every Light in the House Burnin blend the essence of existentialism by themselves in the alienated land.

Keywords : Existential crisis, Assimilation, Alienation, Immigration, Identity.

DOI :

Page Number : 90-94