“England is Still a Distant Shore: A Distant Shore by Caryl Phillips.”

INTERNATIONAL CONFERENCE ON LANGUAGE, LITERATURE, SPACE, Nish, Sırbistan, 28 - 29 Nisan 2017, ss.107-116, (Tam Metin Bildiri)

The aim of this paper is to explore Caryl Phillips’ A Distant Shore as a

fictional account of how the dominant white English community in a small English

village condemns, blames and suffocates the different, the other and the foreigner

rather than appreciating, accepting and reconciling disparate elements despite sharing

the same space. An analysis of the collectivistic bigotry and hostile attitudes towards

individuals of different faith, color and ethnicity indicates that spatial proximity does

not necessarily mean neighborly welcome and people of different religion, ethnicity

and race are desperately stuck between the grim conditions in their homelands, and

the social, cultural, or psychological barriers in England which materialize as blatant

and insidious forms of racism. Throughout the novel, it is apparent that the assumption

that those people are disrupting the harmony, abusing the resources and swamping the

country is the main culprit beyond the traumatic experiences of the different, the other

and the foreigner in England. Thus, it is concluded that racial slurs, racist incidences

and hate crimes drift immigrants, asylum seekers, expatriates and refugees away to

loneliness, exclusion and misery, and England remains a distant shore psychologically,

culturally, economically and socially.