MARGINALISED IDENTITIES IN SAMUEL SELVON’STHE LONELY LONDONERS

This research paper explores the marginalized identities and marginalized condition of black immigrants in White dominated society, London. Samuel Selvon was one of the early West Indian immigrants to Britain that began in 1948. Selvon classical novel, The Lonely Londoners is a novel of realism and it depicts the lives of the marginalized black immigrants in London. The novel The Lonely Londoners deals with issue of migration of the Caribbean to England between 1930 and 1950. It focuses on the large body of working class immigrants and the issue of marginalization. There were more than 40,000 West Indians in London. The novel reveals the existence of fellow immigrants like Moses and Galahad from Trinidad; Captain (Cap) from Nigeria; Mahal from India; Tolray from the West Indies; Daniel hails from France; Brat and Five Past Twelve from Barbados and Brackley and Joseph originated from West Indies. All the immigrants are universally treated as ‘black’ and they are identified as ‘others’ or ‘marginalised’ in the white dominate English society. All the immigrants in the novel work in tubes, factories, railway station and perform household chores for low wages. The novel expresses the poor economic reality of the black immigrants and a drastic failure to find the postures in the alien world.