Diaspora, Space and Identity Production: The Predicament of Belonging in Andrea Levy’s Small Island

Abstract

The vast territories that the British Empire once colonized resulted in a fiction that reflects specific groups of minorities within the British society known as Contemporary Black British Literature. It can be defined as the literature introduced in English by authors who originate from the former British colonies analogous African, Asian, and Caribbean regions. This research paper represents a closer examination of particular problematic issues that are dealt with in Contemporary Black British Literature, namely diaspora and cultural dislocation, space and identity production. It investigates the dilemmas of representation of Caribbean Diaspora living in the metropolitan city of London. This study examines the effects of changing places on the process of ‘space and identity production’. Andrea Levy’s Small Island (2004), portray hybrid characters who are seeking a sense of belonging. The struggle of Levy’s characters to find their own spaces and identities in the post-war London is studied according to the theory of diasporic space and diasporic identity to illustrate the possibility of the existence of produced diasporic space where all these characters can express and celebrate their hybrid identities.