Conflicting Identities and the Formation of National Culture: Dissevering the Psyche of Wanting’s Mathinna

Abstract

Making someone feel inferior for the cause of defining one’s identity as superior has now being practiced since a long time. Back in history, the colonizers had the privilege to make the colonized feel inferior by playing with the psychology of the latter. Wanting by Richard underwent after coming in contact with the colonizers. This paper aims at analyzing the novel from the standpoint of Berry’s four-fold model of acculturation and Franz Fanon’s concept of formation of national culture. This paper dissevers the psychology of the female protagonist of the novel Mathinna as she struggles with the self, putting her identity at stake, throughout the novel. The paper also aims at understanding the psychology of the characters that are directly related to her, as the processes of assimilation can be forced as well as by the will of an individual.