Family and Fragmentation: A Neo-Marxist Reading of Caryl Phillips's Strange Fruit

By: Gurung, Nirmal

This study reads Strange Fruit as a critique of colonial capitalism, arguing that Caribbean fragmentation is materially produced by exploitation and colonial ideology not just displacement. Three questions have been raised in this study: How does Strange Fruit depict the way colonial economic structures shape and distort the consciousness of Caribbean migrants and their children? In what ways does Errol's identity crisis reflect the ideological contradictions produced by colonial and class hegemony? Why does the play depict fragmentation as a systemic rather than individual condition? Therefore, the Neo-Marxist approach is used as an analytical tool. Some of the most important theorists included in this study are Antonio Gramsci, Louis Althusser, and Raymond Williams. Gramsci shows that colonial and class authority are maintained through cultural hegemony rather than mere force. Althusser reflects the role of ideological state apparatuses in shaping consciousness. Textual analysis shows the Marshall family's embrace of English culture and rejection of Caribbean roots mark them as compromised. The home enacts a displaced colonial ritual, while Errol's ideological collapse signals the breakdown of collective identity. Phillips ultimately depicts colonial-capitalist fragmentation as trapping both colonizer and colonized, leaving only a painful awakening that cannot undo the damage.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 9999355242
• ISBN13: 9789999355247
• Release Date: September 2026
• Publisher: Eliva Press
• Length: 90 Pages
• Weight: 0.29 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.2" x 6.0" x 9.0"