Transcending Borders: A Diasporic Perspective on Andrea Levy’s Small Island

Abstract

In the context of increasing global migration, individuals from diverse cultural backgrounds navigate processes of negotiation and assimilation with the host society, as well as within their own communities. Andrea Levy’s Small Island serves as an exemplary text for examining the diasporic experience, as it articulates various dimensions of displacement, alienation, the divergence between expectations and reality, racial discrimination, linguistic challenges, gender inequalities, nostalgia, and cultural hybridity. This study emphasizes the characters’ profound sense of estrangement from the host land, as they grapple with cultural disparities, racism, and gender biases. Moreover, this paper examines the ways in which the characters ultimately integrate into hybrid identities, acknowledging the inevitability of change and the impossibility of returning to their original states prior to migration.