Maria Aparecida Salgueiro

Diasporization and Family Relations: the Construction of Female Identity in Nella Larsen's Quicksand and Jamaica Kincaid's Lucy Maria Aparecida Salgueiro

The main aim of this book is to investigate and analyze how diasporic movements and family relations exert influence on the construction of women's identities in Nella Larsen's Quicksand and Jamaica Kincaid's Lucy. The author's hypothesis is that in the selected works we will find two journeys, which have both similar and distinct aspects, and begin with the main characters' desire to escape oppression. Given these facts, the protagonists go through a period of many discoveries about themselves and the societies with which they have to deal, which unfolds into two products: the building of Lucy's autonomous hybrid identities in her loneliness in Kincaid's work, and the building of Helga's hybrid identities overshadowed by religion, patriarchy, and family relations in Larsen's work.