An Interpretation Of Disappearance From Sartre’s Existentialism

Disappearance,a masterpiece by Guyana writer David Dabydeen,tells the story of a Guyanese engineer who builds a bank in Dunsmere Village,England,reflecting the colonial influence on the Guyanese people.In Disappearance,the author not only implies the perplexity and struggle of individual in the identity but also embodies the sense of the predicament of the individual’s survival.Taking Disappearance as the research object,this dissertation,through the method of textual close reading,interprets how the protagonist breaks away from the predicament of alienation and finds the way out of alienation.This dissertation reviews and summarizes the historical studies of Disappearance by Chinese and Western scholars.Then,based on the Sartre’s Existentialism,this dissertation uses the method of textual close reading to analyze the image and behaviour of the protagonist in the novel and believes that the protagonist’s path out of alienation is consistent with Sartre’s Existentialism.Firstly,the dissertation analyzes the dilemma of the protagonist and demonstrates the inevitability of the absurd reality.Secondly,it analyzes how the protagonist gradually loses his subjectivity and becomes an object under the gaze of others.Bearing the expectation of people around him,especially his mother,and influenced by the British education,the protagonist in Disappearance becomes what others expect,which leads to self-alienation.But the protagonist also resists alienation.His positive behavior of taking responsibility for himself and the people around him fully shows his determination to search for authenticity.The dissertation starts from a comparatively new perspective,hoping to provide a new perspective for the interpretation of the novel with theme of escaping from the dilemma of personal survival.