Colonial Shadows: Intersections of Trauma, Memory and Identity in Abdulrazak Gurnah’s Fiction

Abstract

This paper examines how Abdulrazak Gurnah’s fiction re-frames the psychological and emotional impacts of colonialism, displacement, and forced migration while also examining trauma and survival in his works. The lived experiences of those whose identities have been upended by exile and empire are reflected in Gurnah’s works. This paper examines how trauma is an embodied experience created by migration, memory, and stillness in By the Sea. Memory and trauma are studied as two principal ways postcolonial societies interact with their pasts and histories to build the future, making them essential themes of the literature written in the postcolonial nations. The paper also proves that memory is a means of erasing colonial histories and preserving indigenous histories and self in the context of colonization.

Keywords: Exile, memory, trauma, migration, identity, post-colonialism.