Dislocating The Dislocated: Imperial Constructs in Maud Diver’s Candles in the Wind

Abstract

All over the world there have been discrete communities that have uprooted themselves, or have been forced to do so, from their motherlands for several reasons. In the earliest days of displacement, commerce was the motivating factor but, later and more importantly, came the competition for colonial domination. Hence, large communities migrated first, as trader, and then as ruler, slave or indentured labourer to the New Colonies being set up by European masters from as far back as the late 16th century.