The Lonely Londoners Context Flashcards
1
Q
London?
A
- chronicle of post war West Indian immigration to Britain
- Romance and disenchantment of London acts as both a magnet and nightmare for the immigrants
2
Q
Dialect?
A
- Originally written in standard English
- oral venacular ‘couldn’t carry the essence of what I wanted to say’
3
Q
Media?
A
West Indian immigrants christened ‘Jamaican’ by the neologisms of British media, reported to be flooding london streets - links to ‘they invading’
4
Q
Effects?
A
The psychological and disorientating effects are created by the collision of Trinidad and London.
5
Q
Selvon?
A
- East Indian Trinidadian with half Scottish mother
- grew up in a multicultural world that carried the sediments of a mixed colonial history situated at the dynamic crossroads of different cultural traditions
6
Q
Government policy?
A
1962 designed to keep ‘coloured citizens out’
- draws attention to this volatile atmosphere with the room based existence of characters
- powerful metaphor for their in between existence both inside and outside English culture
7
Q
Narrative pace?
A
- partially driven by the influence of the Trinidadian calypso
- similarly characters inhabit a world replete with double entendre
8
Q
Boys experiences?
A
- no beginning or end
= aimlessness and restlessness
9
Q
Novels structure?
A
surface fragmentation or conscious disorganization
-under everything = aimlessness and restlesness
