Cover Image

Belonging to nowhere: a psychological study of alienation and estrangement in Ramabai Espinet's “The Swinging Bridge” (2003)

Diaspora communities feel alienated because they cannot decide which space they belong to. The notions of identity and home are problematized and characterized by a sense of continuity and discontinuity, a conflict of location and dislocation and a process of hybridization. Espinet's The Swingi...

Full description

Saved in:
Bibliographic Details
Main Authors: Yahya, Salam Hussein, Mani, Manimangai, Bahar, Ida Baizura, Awang, Mohammad Ewan
Format: Article
Published: Academy Publication 2022
Online Access:http://psasir.upm.edu.my/id/eprint/100520/
https://tpls.academypublication.com/index.php/tpls/article/view/3609
Tags: Add Tag
No Tags, Be the first to tag this record!
id my.upm.eprints.100520
record_format eprints
spelling my.upm.eprints.1005202023-11-21T08:34:34Z http://psasir.upm.edu.my/id/eprint/100520/ Belonging to nowhere: a psychological study of alienation and estrangement in Ramabai Espinet's “The Swinging Bridge” (2003) Yahya, Salam Hussein Mani, Manimangai Bahar, Ida Baizura Awang, Mohammad Ewan Diaspora communities feel alienated because they cannot decide which space they belong to. The notions of identity and home are problematized and characterized by a sense of continuity and discontinuity, a conflict of location and dislocation and a process of hybridization. Espinet's The Swinging Bridge (2003) resembles outstanding indication of the psychological conflict that happens in the mind of the diaspora. Feelings, homes and identities are indeed swinging and cannot be certain to belong to a certain space or time. The question that is raised in this paper shows that there is no fixed home for a diaspora to belong to. This is due to a psychological clash between homes, identities, cultures, politics and many other factors that reconstruct and help in the formation of a hybrid identity that belongs to none in particular and cannot be accepted in all. So, this identity starts swinging between homes and cultures. The idea of 'bridge' in Espinet's The Swinging Bridge, is no more than an illusion and a dream that the writer tries to present as a solution for this dilemma of estrangement. Academy Publication 2022-07 Article PeerReviewed Yahya, Salam Hussein and Mani, Manimangai and Bahar, Ida Baizura and Awang, Mohammad Ewan (2022) Belonging to nowhere: a psychological study of alienation and estrangement in Ramabai Espinet's “The Swinging Bridge” (2003). Theory and Practice in Language Studies, 12 (7). 1294 - 1298. ISSN 1799-2591 https://tpls.academypublication.com/index.php/tpls/article/view/3609 10.17507/tpls.1207.07
institution Universiti Putra Malaysia
building UPM Library
collection Institutional Repository
continent Asia
country Malaysia
content_provider Universiti Putra Malaysia
content_source UPM Institutional Repository
url_provider http://psasir.upm.edu.my/
description Diaspora communities feel alienated because they cannot decide which space they belong to. The notions of identity and home are problematized and characterized by a sense of continuity and discontinuity, a conflict of location and dislocation and a process of hybridization. Espinet's The Swinging Bridge (2003) resembles outstanding indication of the psychological conflict that happens in the mind of the diaspora. Feelings, homes and identities are indeed swinging and cannot be certain to belong to a certain space or time. The question that is raised in this paper shows that there is no fixed home for a diaspora to belong to. This is due to a psychological clash between homes, identities, cultures, politics and many other factors that reconstruct and help in the formation of a hybrid identity that belongs to none in particular and cannot be accepted in all. So, this identity starts swinging between homes and cultures. The idea of 'bridge' in Espinet's The Swinging Bridge, is no more than an illusion and a dream that the writer tries to present as a solution for this dilemma of estrangement.
format Article
author Yahya, Salam Hussein
Mani, Manimangai
Bahar, Ida Baizura
Awang, Mohammad Ewan
spellingShingle Yahya, Salam Hussein
Mani, Manimangai
Bahar, Ida Baizura
Awang, Mohammad Ewan
Belonging to nowhere: a psychological study of alienation and estrangement in Ramabai Espinet's “The Swinging Bridge” (2003)
author_facet Yahya, Salam Hussein
Mani, Manimangai
Bahar, Ida Baizura
Awang, Mohammad Ewan
author_sort Yahya, Salam Hussein
title Belonging to nowhere: a psychological study of alienation and estrangement in Ramabai Espinet's “The Swinging Bridge” (2003)
title_short Belonging to nowhere: a psychological study of alienation and estrangement in Ramabai Espinet's “The Swinging Bridge” (2003)
title_full Belonging to nowhere: a psychological study of alienation and estrangement in Ramabai Espinet's “The Swinging Bridge” (2003)
title_fullStr Belonging to nowhere: a psychological study of alienation and estrangement in Ramabai Espinet's “The Swinging Bridge” (2003)
title_full_unstemmed Belonging to nowhere: a psychological study of alienation and estrangement in Ramabai Espinet's “The Swinging Bridge” (2003)
title_sort belonging to nowhere: a psychological study of alienation and estrangement in ramabai espinet's “the swinging bridge” (2003)
publisher Academy Publication
publishDate 2022
url http://psasir.upm.edu.my/id/eprint/100520/
https://tpls.academypublication.com/index.php/tpls/article/view/3609
_version_ 1783879922859638784
score 13.211869

Similar Items