The Uprooting in the Narrative Language of Foreign Land by Jonathan Raban

The language and narrative style of Jonathan Raban, a contemporary English writer author of the novel Foreign Land (1985), seem to find in the themes of uprooting and self-searching a metaphorical and existential interpretation that in the search for identity alternates the desire to return to the origins, recovering lost affections and beloved places, with the attraction to the unknown. In this oscillation, masterfully rendered by the metaphorical and figurative language of the novel, Raban tells the awareness that the return to the origins is not always a point of arrival but a further turning point in life. The article focuses on some particularly effective linguistic and semantic aspects through which the author renews and personalizes the travel novel, making it an existential, intimate tale in which the sense of estrangement and the desire to take root are intertwined with a compelling story rich in landscape descriptions and philosophical reflections.