The Form of Emergence: George Lamming’s The Emigrants

Abstract

In The Emigrants, George Lamming experimented with the form of the novel as he sought to portray an original historical experience: the immigration of Caribbean peoples to Britain. This chapter argues that The Emigrants employs modernist techniques in support of a fundamentally realistic drive to map social life. Moving from the flutters of consciousness to an assured detailing of milieu and social forces, Lamming reinvents realism for the Empire Windrush generation. In doing so, The Emigrants demonstrates the possibilities for realist experiment in postcolonial and Black British literature.