Diasporization and family relations in Nella Larsen s Quicksand and Jamaica Kincaid s Lucy: the construction of female identity

Abstract

The main aim of this thesis is to investigate and analyze how the diasporic movements and the family relations exert influence on the construction of women s identities in Nella Larsen s Quicksand and Jamaica Kincaid s Lucy. Therefore, the questions I intend to answer are: How do the main characters, Helga Crane and Lucy, deal with the different cultures they find in their trajectories? ; How do these different cultures deal with these same characters? , and How is the meeting of such different cultures and family relations portrayed, as well as how does it exert influence on the construction of the female identity in these works? My hypothesis is that in the selected works we will find two journeys, which have both similar and distinct aspects, and begin with the main characters desire to escape oppression. Given these facts, the protagonists go through a period of many discoveries about themselves and the societies with which they have to deal, which unfolds into two products: the building of Lucy s autonomous hybrid identities in her loneliness in Kincaid s work, and the building of Helga s hybrid identities overshadowed by religion, patriarchy, and family relations in Larsen s work