The protagonist’s quest for identity in Lawrence Hill’s Any Known Blood

Abstract

The aim of this thesis is to analyse how Langston Cane V, the protagonist of Lawrence Hill’s Any Known Blood, finds out who he is, how he belongs not to the United States but to Canada and what the role of his American roots is in defining his identity. The methods of character and thematic analysis are used to understand and analyse the protagonist’s quest for an identity. The introduction gives a brief overview of the cultural and literary background of the novel. The first chapter focuses on previous studies written about the protagonist’s search for identity. The second chapter analyses the protagonist’s quest to understand who he is, his discovery of his ancestors and how he finally still belongs to Canada, even if his roots are linked to the United States. Keywords: Lawrence Hill, transnationalism, identity, passing, re-membering