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In Double Exile: A Memoir

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Date Issued:
2014
Abstract/Description:
In Double Exile: A Memoir examines the life of a family of Ghanaian immigrants and their journeys of acculturation, and the impact of the father's spiraling mental health issues on his family. Through the eyes of their daughter, this thesis briefly explores their lives on the right side of the Atlantic, as medical professionals, and then focuses on the life of their daughter born in America on the left side of the Atlantic. As novelist Georges Simenon has said, (")I am at home everywhere, and nowhere. I am never a stranger and I never quite belong.(") This memoir explores this tension between alienation and connection, as a second-generation immigrant grows up navigating between various cultures: to dominant American culture, evangelical Christian/Southern culture, African-American culture, and Ghanaian culture. In an attempt to understand the present, this thesis is a sankofa journey back into the author's history. Spanning over four decades, the memoir uncovers various exilic configurations: exiled from family, from ethnic heritage, from home, and from one's self.
Title: In Double Exile: A Memoir.
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Name(s): Beckwin, Deborah, Author
Nwakanma, Obi, Committee Chair
Roney, Lisa, Committee Member
Thaxton, Terry, Committee Member
University of Central Florida, Degree Grantor
Type of Resource: text
Date Issued: 2014
Publisher: University of Central Florida
Language(s): English
Abstract/Description: In Double Exile: A Memoir examines the life of a family of Ghanaian immigrants and their journeys of acculturation, and the impact of the father's spiraling mental health issues on his family. Through the eyes of their daughter, this thesis briefly explores their lives on the right side of the Atlantic, as medical professionals, and then focuses on the life of their daughter born in America on the left side of the Atlantic. As novelist Georges Simenon has said, (")I am at home everywhere, and nowhere. I am never a stranger and I never quite belong.(") This memoir explores this tension between alienation and connection, as a second-generation immigrant grows up navigating between various cultures: to dominant American culture, evangelical Christian/Southern culture, African-American culture, and Ghanaian culture. In an attempt to understand the present, this thesis is a sankofa journey back into the author's history. Spanning over four decades, the memoir uncovers various exilic configurations: exiled from family, from ethnic heritage, from home, and from one's self.
Identifier: CFE0005304 (IID), ucf:50529 (fedora)
Note(s): 2014-08-01
M.F.A.
Arts and Humanities, English
Masters
This record was generated from author submitted information.
Subject(s): memoir -- African -- African-American -- Ghanaian -- immigration -- creative nonfiction -- Christianity -- identity -- coming-of-age -- diaspora
Persistent Link to This Record: http://purl.flvc.org/ucf/fd/CFE0005304
Restrictions on Access: campus 2019-08-15
Host Institution: UCF

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