Student Number : 0515393R -
MA research report -
School of Literature and Language Studies -
Faculty of Humanities / This study examines the effects of diaspora and displacement in characters as
presented in Abdulrazak Gurnah’s Paradise, Admiring Silence and By the Sea. It
looks at the role played by these effects in the construction of ideas of home and
identity in the characters. Displacement is studied here against a backdrop of a
long history of movements brought about by trading activities, exile and
voluntary migrations. The texts are set in the east African coastal region, the
islands and in Western countries such as England. The study relies on theories of
postcolonialism and diaspora for its reading. The introduction places Gurnah’s
work within the postcolonial archive by looking at his stance against the existing
postcolonial discourses. It is also of importance to consider Gurnah’s biography
and attempt to relate this to the view he takes as he narrates this geographical
space in a postcolonial era. Chapter two looks at ideas of home as posited by
different theorists in relation to the displaced and scattered characters he
presents in these texts. Chapter three is concerned with how characters construct
their identities against the ideas of ‘otherness’. In this chapter, I argue that
Gurnah’s ideas of ‘otherness’ operate outside the (post)colonial idea of the same
where the other is defined purely by difference in race. In chapter four I examine
the significance of the preponderance of violence in the families presented by
Gurnah. I investigate the connection between this perpetration of violence in the
family and the idea of an elusive ‘paradise’ which runs through all Gurnah’s
texts. The conclusion summarizes my major findings about Gurnah’s
presentation of diaspora and displacement in the East African coast and the
islands, and how he uses different structures like the home, self and the family to
do this.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:netd.ac.za/oai:union.ndltd.org:wits/oai:wiredspace.wits.ac.za:10539/2108 |
| Date | 23 February 2007 |
| Creators | Ajulu-Okungu, Anne |
| Source Sets | South African National ETD Portal |
| Language | English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Thesis |
| Format | 46570 bytes, 9515 bytes, 51096 bytes, 115249 bytes, 133392 bytes, 127579 bytes, 113628 bytes, 88601 bytes, 56927 bytes, application/pdf, application/pdf, application/pdf, application/pdf, application/pdf, application/pdf, application/pdf, application/pdf, application/pdf, application/pdf, application/pdf, application/pdf, application/pdf, application/pdf, application/pdf, application/pdf, application/pdf, application/pdf |
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