Voices in Exile: Postcolonial Identity and Muslim Immigrant Experience in Abdulrazak Gurnah's Admiring Silence
Year: 2025
Type: article
Abstract: This study examines the themes of postcolonial identity, exile, cultural hybridity and the experience of the Muslim immigrant in Abdulrazak Gurnah's novel Admiring Silence (1996). The study is concerned with racial and cultural issues of the diaspora Muslim immigrants. Using a postcolonial approach, the research explores the character's struggle to find their identity and belonging, both domestically and abroad in the countries of their origin and the societies in which they live. The study sheds light on the complex identities of characters shaped by the dynamics of postcolonial experiences, including immigration, cultural hybridity, and racial and religious identity. The present study uses a descriptive-analytical approach in the postcolonial context. The findings show the protagonist's experience of a cultural displacement and fragmented sense of selfhood as he struggles to balance the racial, national, and religious identities that he is forced to adopt by both his homeland and his life in exile. The research aims to introduce new knowledge into the multidimensional human experience of Muslim immigrants living in exile and to reveal their sufferings of alienation, identity loss, and a sense of belonging.
Authors: Ahmed Mabrook Al-Hawtali, Kamran Zaib, Ali Saleh Al-Hossini
Language: English
Subfield: Literature and Literary Theory
Field: Arts and Humanities
Domain: Social Sciences
SDG: Reduced inequalities
Open Access status: diamond
OpenAlex ID: W7108201212