“I Want to Go Home”: The Representation of Dual Homecoming in Dorothy Allison’s Cavedweller

Michał Choiński

doi:10.18290/rh216911-4

Michał Choiński Jagiellonian University in Krakow https://orcid.org/0000-0001-6503-3602

DOI: https://doi.org/10.18290/rh216911-4

Keywords: Southern literature, Dorothy Allison, Cavedweller, doubling, trauma

Abstract

The aim of the article is to discuss Dorothy Allison’s novel Cavedweller (1998) in terms of the narrative strategies of doubling. The novel features Delia, a woman who returns to the South with her daughter, Cissy, to reconnect with the rest of her family. While Delia’s return to her hometown meets with social ostracism, her daughter manages to find a sense of identity and belonging in the underground caves in Georgia. The two parallel stories of homecoming are presented by Allison through the images of doubling, which help her to confront regional traumas and tensions of the South.

References

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