Az Eszterházy Károly Tanárképző Főiskola Tudományos Közleményei. 2002. Vol. 8. Eger Journal of American Studies.(Acta Academiae Paedagogicae Agriensis : Nova series ; Tom. 28)

Studies - Judit Molnár: The Spatio-Temporal Dimension of Diasporic Discourse from the Carrebian on the Canadian Literary Scene

related is the instruction provided by the Anglican Church. They intensely studied the Scriptures, prayed from the Book of Common Prayers, and he sang enthusiastically in the church choir, too. The local church always "too loud" (84) was for other people. In the same way that schools and people and fools were categorized, so too was the Church of the Nazarane. It was slotted at the lower end of the religious ladder. Only poor people, people who had suffered, who had the hardest of lives, who were black in a population of black people, only these worshipped at the Church of the Nazarene. (110) Yet Clarke acknowledges, "But it was a part of the village; and if I could have thought about it in those days of no serious social thought and awareness, it was a part of ourselves." (110) And in-between there was the AME church for middle-class people. The society of Barbados was very fragmented in all areas of life. The genius loci, that is the distinctive atmosphere and the particular character of this place is manifest in different ways that create a unique space with its linguistic and religious characteristics as well. Religious holidays like Christmas were celebrated in a special way. It was a time for feasting, getting the artificial snow and for women to gather and tell anecdotes. The oral tradition of handing down stories and communicating in general was very strong: "We never wrote a local letter: we would walk with that meage, or give it verbally to a friend, to give to a friend, to give to the person. I never could understand why." (37) The novel depicts the way the local culture lives side by side with the imported culture of the colonizers in a cross-cultural space. The dominating culture of the colonizers controlled over everything in every possible way. Being able to get rid of the school uniform during the summer symbolizes a kind of freedom that could not be experienced otherwise. Algoo-Baksh notes, "[t]he book is a source of insight into the absurdities and contradictions of a colonial legacy that was responsible for making cultural schizoids of Clarke and his fellow colonized" (147). Being an illegitimate child in a matriarchal society was not something to be ashamed of but the dominant culture stigmatized it. Having no legal father, Clarke had to live through embarrassing episodes at school. At the same time, it is with warmth that Clarke talks about his mother and stepfather. The autobiographical impulses are very strong in the novel. 209