Literature Review of Cambridge by Caryl Phillips - 1667 Words

For my Internal Assessment I have chosen to do a review of Caryl Phillips’ post-colonial work of fiction, â€Å"Cambridge†. This novel published in the year 1991, explores the interlocking of a variety of forms of marginalization, displacement and dispossession that emerge from the experience of cross-cultural encounters. It persistently raises questions of home, identity and belonging. Philips’ novel is set in an unnamed small Caribbean island during a transitional period, sometime between the abolition of the slave trade in 1807 and the emancipation of slaves in 1834. Phillips raises the consciousness of the readers by highlighting the brutality and horrors of slavery through perfected use of narrative techniques such as imagery, irony,†¦show more content†¦Brown. Furthermore, Emily’s marginality in planter society is reinforced as much by her relative innocence as newcomer as by her own vague and unspecified liberal beliefs. In the early days, she sees herself as ‘set apart† from planter society; she sides with the abolitionist campaigns and is disapproving of her father’s cavalier ignorance of the â€Å"pains and pleasures†¦.endured by those whose labour enables him to indulge himself in the heavy-pocketed manner to which he has become accustomed†. She sees herself as on a moral crusade of sorts and hopes to convert her father to the abolitionist cause through her first-hand knowledge and account of the â€Å"inquiry of slavery.† Yet her condemnation of her compatriots’ abstract support for the abolitionists and convert real support of â€Å"old prejudices,† will increasingly apply to her. Emily’s account of her initial encounters with â€Å"negroes† on the island is testament to the strength and depth of European racial prejudices. She finds it difficult to disguise her revulsion at the appearance, dress, manners and language of the black peoples of the island. She repeatedly associates them with the animal kingdom, mistaking slave children for monkeys, describing slave homes as â€Å"lairs and nests† and the noises of the slave village as a distant â€Å"braying.† Emily objects to her black slave