Analyzing the Notion of Unhomeliness and Othering in Esi Edugyan’s Washington Black

A Postcolonial Study

Abstract

The present study intends to explore the notion of unhomeliness and the concept of othering experienced by the characters in Esi Edugyan's Washington Black. The selected novel has many characters who have been exploited at the hands of the colonizers. They have to obey their masters willingly or unwillingly. The present research also analyzes the protagonist's bitter experience of elopement and then his search for a home of his own. His struggle also causes him to face identity crisis in a totally strange surroundings. Faith Plantation is being presented as the home for Black slaves where the protagonist himself is brought up and worked with his peers. The past memories, the sufferings of childhood and psychological as well as physical torture at the hands of savage masters are among those unforgettable events which cast an unending shadow of despair, hopelessness and anxiety on the minds of the oppressors. This oppression convinces the oppressed to be "the others" who are destined to be suppressed and exploited. The study follows the parameters of qualitative research and concept of othering is highlighted in the novel through the concept of unhomeliness which is the second most concerned notion of this paper.