Unveiling Hybridity and Identity. A Comparative Study of Olive and Vivien's Experiences in Andrea Levy's 'Never Far From Nowhere'

Seminar paper from the year 2009 in the subject English Language and Literature Studies - Literature, grade: 2,3, University of Trier, language: English, abstract: This paper explores the concepts of hybridity and identity in Andrea Levy's 'Never Far From Nowhere'. The story could be taken from real life: British Imperialism has brought many people from British colonies into the mother country and has caused multiculturalism. A part of this is depicted by Levy, who was also born in England to Jamaican parents. It is worth introducing the term 'identity' and what it is determined by first and taking two opposing key concepts of identity, namely essentialism and hybridity, into account afterwards. In the following examination of Olive and Vivien in Never Far From Nowhere, which will be the main part of the paper, the focus will be on their identities with regard to the same point of interest. On the one hand, their general situation in life will be targeted, with special focus on the contrast between them and the reasons that the readers are presented with in that account. On the other hand, their ethnic identities as two related, but differently accepted Jamaicans in London, especially their self-perception of it, will be dealt with.