A study of the journying motif and the narrative technique in Edward Kamau Brathwaite's the Arrivants

Abstract

This project is an analysis of the Narrative Technique and The Journeying Motif in Edward Kamau Brathwaite's poetic trilogy, The Arrivants. The study analyses how the two styles have combined to bring out the thematic issues raised in the text. Chapter one of the study deals with the background of the study, statement of the problem, research questions, objectives and assumptions, research justification, theoretical framework, literature review, scope and limitation, the methodology applied and a documentation on the Author's background. In chapter two, the study notes that the journeying motif as applied in the trilogy is of great thematic significance. We encounter the arrivants traveling from the Caribbean Islands to Africa. This journey is done to and from again and again without the arrivants settling in either of the destinations. The study has shown how the poet has used the journeying motif as a style to appeal to the arrivants to actually take possession of the Caribbean Island and settle there. The discussion of chapter two is based on the Narrative Technique. The analysis outlines songs and dances, repetition, rhythm, dialect, conversation and dialogue as elements of narrative technique that are used in the trilogy. These elements have been used effectively to break monotony of the journey, invite audience participation and performance especially where dialogue, songs and dances are used in the text. The fourth chapter covers the concluding remarks of the study. Through the finding of the analysis, I am able to assert that the narrative technique and the journeying motif have combined to effectively outline such thematic concerns as flight, fear, alienation, assertiveness, racism and political inequalities both at a personal and communal level for the arrivants; in The Arrivants.