Riassunto esame Letteratura dei paesi di lingua inglese, prof. Giovannelli, libro consigliato In the castle of my skin, Lamming

Notes on reading "In the Castle of my Skin" by G. Lamming

Topic

This novel is a sort of coming-of-age text: bildungsroman and an autobiographical novel. The narrating voice, G., is a nine-year-old boy growing up in Barbados. Interestingly, all his growth is marked by a very deep sense of isolation and suspension as far as identity is concerned (Little England vs. Big England, Black vs. White vs. Coloureds, Tradition and Education). His life reflects that of the entire village, so that individual and community life are bound together.

The novel deals with the description of the life of the village which is highly routinized: everyone is always doing the same things, they are bound to habits, tradition and customs (Pa, Ma, the shoemaker) and each day resembles the previous one. Even the colonial power and the submission of the blacks is seen as something inevitable, preordained, fixed, never-changing.

This sense of stillness, immobility pervades the novel and the reader has the impression everything is stuck in a never-ending present because of rootlessness, habits and so on. Un cambiamento radicale invece si sta profilando all'orizzonte, ma come effetto avrà sempre quello di confermare quello che Lamming definisce un << "universal sense of separation and abandonment, frustration and loss, and above all, of man's direct inner experience of something missing." >>, tipico della condizione umana.

Da voce a un senso di ‘non Indeed, G. feels as if he is constantly separated by everyone. appartenenza’. As he grows up, the world he lives in widens and keeps separating him from the others: going to high school entails he does not belong anymore to the village. When he will be asked to leave High School, he goes back but his friends know he is not one of them anymore.

Le uniche certezze che ha riguardano la routine quotidiana del villaggio, che sarà inevitabilmente scossa dall’ondata di insurrezioni: il white landlord venderà la piantagione e tutta l’area del villaggio a Mr. Slime, uno dei villagers, ma questo non porta a una immediata autonomia. Il dominio coloniale era percepito come un caposaldo della vita del villaggio. L’identità dei suoi abitanti era segnata dalla consapevolezza dell’inferiorità rispetto agli inglesi. La gerarchia precedente: landlord, overseer, villagers, è stata sconvolta e non vi sono punti di riferimento. Ciò che resta è un senso di caos dopo la fine delle consuetudini precedenti.

In the end, before he leaves for Trinidad, G. meets the major figures of his life: his mother, his friend Trumper and Pa. His mother has changed, Trumper has finally found his identity, he talks differently and wants to go back to America. Pa has to move away because the land he lived in has been sold. Barbados itself has changed as a consequence of WW2. So G. gets ready to go away, knowing that he is going to face a new beginning without knowing who he really is, because the little universe he has lived in has disappeared.

Il finale sembra sottintendere che anche G. riuscirà a trovare la propria identità, anche se in un futuro non ancora ben visibile all’orizzonte. È comunque il contatto con l’altro a permettere la costruzione dell’identità, cosa ancora impossibile perché gli inglesi abbandonano l’isola. La coesistenza ravvicinata tra locals e inglesi è vissuta all’interno di una separatezza ormai accettata come abitudine consolidata.

This is really emphasized at the very beginning of the novel. 1: isolation and stillness of time It accompanies the celebration of the narrator’s birthday each year from the age of 9. This is the season of flood (August) fatherless + inquires about his origins (grandparents, uncle): total absence of family relations since birth > loneliness, impossibilità di coltivare un senso di appartenenza, which may entail freedom. Loneliness and rootlessness is the narrating voice’s legacy.

Metaphorical reference of the flood, taking away everything like in the universal deluge: a new beginning. However this happens...