Diaspora in Caryl Phillips’s A Distant Shore

Abstract

Diaspora and its theory are currently important items discussed in Post-colonial studies, since it deals not only with pre-transnational events but also include transculturation, the identity and the hybridism. Caryl Phillips’s A Distant Shore, published in 2003, describes the diaspora phenomenon in its theme modality about refugees and job-seeking referring to the African Solomon/Gabriel. The African refugee look for refuge in an “imaginary welcoming” place called Britain, full of racism and sexual prejudice. The negro’s awareness of homelessness is based on the historical colonial premises of diversity, othering and degradation. Another different type of diaspora and homelessness belong paradoxically to some people that even being bornt in England, felt lost in their own country. Although circumstances have sometimes produced a breaking down of prejudice barriers, the othering as a loneliness effect and the overall environment against the different person create an unstable topos for the already fragmented subjects. Seems like the tragic end of Solomon and the process of deeper frustration in Dorothy reveal not only a dead end in their friendship but also symbolizes the subject fragmentation, black or white, in a transnational world.