Memory Writing and Identity Construction in The Last Gift
Gurnah's novel The Last Gift takes the memories of African immigrants as the story thread to reveal the inter-genera-tional memory breakdown and identity construction crisis between the two generations of immigrants.The parents'deliberate oblivion and silence lead to their children's memory crisis andidentity absence.Both generations of immigrants fall into identity construction cri-sis in the silent memory,unable to trace back to the past to regain their original identity,and unable to settle for the present to build a new ethical identity,so they struggle painfully between return and assimilation.Gurnah regards explanation and communication as ef-fective ways to relieve the crisis of memory and identity construction,and evoke individual memory through explanation.The interaction between individual memory and collective memory contributes to the continuous construction of ethical identity by African immigrants.
万方数据
维普
