THE DISCOURSE OF DISPLACEMENT IN LAWRENCE DURRELL’S THE PIED PIPER OF LOVERS
THE DISCOURSE OF DISPLACEMENT IN LAWRENCE DURRELL’S THE PIED PIPER OF LOVERS

Summary/Abstract: London - as the center of empire in a still colonial age - is meant to be the home of those born of British parents in the colonies. Yet in Lawrence Durrell’s Pied Piper of Lovers (1935) it is perceived as a site of displacement, quite unreal to the eyes of Walsh Clifton who arrives there from the exotic and rural India of his childhood. Durrell himself had experienced this same feeling of displacement when he first came to England to be educated, despite the fact that his parents had been born in India and had never seen England themselves. The expectations of finding a home are not met as the first contact is achieved for either the author or his alter ego, Walsh Clifton. Thus, the possibility that a British subject born in the colonies might find a homeland in England is revealed as doubtful. Walsh Clifton’s homecoming to London is revealed to be an instance of displacement exposing the crisis of identity he undergoes. The problematic alienation felt by Clifton in India is displaced from India to England during his move to the homeland. The exacerbated feelings in the homeland reveal that England is perceived as more alien to him than India. Englishness becomes intrinsically linked to the space of home or displacement and to the search for an identity that is spatially and culturally determined.

• Details
• Contents