Second-Generation Immigrant Struggles with Multicultural Identity and Emotional Loneliness: The Character of Meera in David Chariandy's Soucouyant

Abstract

Understanding the possible struggles of second-generation immigrants is necessary for providing them the best circumstances for dealing with them. The present thesis analyses the character of Meera, a second-generation immigrant, in David Chariandy's novel Soucouyant, and aims to answer the following questions: how does Meera's understanding of her multicultural identity change throughout her narrative, how does Meera come to experience emotional loneliness and how does she start to overcome it, how do Meera's generational relationships affect her process of understanding her multicultural identity and her experience with emotional loneliness, and, what is the significance of the intertext of the soucouyant in relation to Meera's identity and loneliness. The thesis consists of an introduction, a literature review and an empirical part, and a conclusion. The introduction provides a summary of the novel, the main terms used in the thesis and the research questions. The literature review is divided into three topics: the reception of the novel, multicultural identity and emotional loneliness. The empirical part is also divided into three sections, which concentrate on Meera's relationships with her mother Antoinette, the narrator's mother Adele and the narrator. Meera's understanding of her multicultural identity and her experiences with emotional loneliness are analysed through all the three sections. The conclusion summarises the findings of the thesis.