241776

Narrative Representation of Cosmopolitanism: The Case of Leila Aboulela’s Bird Summons

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Last updated: 04 Jan 2025

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Abstract

In her novel Bird Summons (2019), Sudanese-born writer Leila Aboulela (1964 –) engenders a paradigm of transnational connectivity and interdependence. This paper investigates how Aboulela's novel, on the narrative level, represents a cosmopolitan community in which people of different cultures and religions do not merely co-exist, but also interact and interconnect. Bird Summons is an artificially linear narrative, linking different cultural contexts, transnational settings, and global thematic reflections. In particular, using multiperspectivity, narrative overlapping, intertextuality, and magical realism, Aboulela introduces a model for rooted and religious cosmopolitanism based on intercultural and interfaith dialogue. The paper examines ways of cosmopolitanising the narrative so that the novel itself might contribute to circulating the spirit of cosmopolitanism by engaging the reader in transnational processes of empathy, solidarity, hospitality, and tolerance. The way to transnational connectedness and openness, however, is not an easy one. The novel highlights some of the underlined conflicts and parochial ideas that may menace this cosmopolitan outlook. As the paper demonstrates, there is a close relationship between the narrative technique of Bird Summons and the author's vision of cosmopolitanism.

DOI

10.21608/opde.2022.241776

Keywords

Leila Aboulela, Bird Summons, rooted cosmopolitanism, narrative representation, multiperspectivity, intertextuality, Magical realism

Authors

First Name

Ashraf Taha Mohamed

Last Name

Kouta

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Volume

77

Article Issue

1

Related Issue

34734

Issue Date

2022-01-01

Receive Date

2022-06-04

Publish Date

2022-01-01

Page Start

21

Page End

39

Print ISSN

1110-2721

Online ISSN

2735-3591

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https://opde.journals.ekb.eg/article_241776.html

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https://opde.journals.ekb.eg/service?article_code=241776

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2

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Original Article

Type Code

1,140

Publication Type

Journal

Publication Title

CDELT Occasional Papers in the Development of English Education

Publication Link

https://opde.journals.ekb.eg/

MainTitle

Narrative Representation of Cosmopolitanism: The Case of Leila Aboulela’s Bird Summons

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Article

Created At

22 Jan 2023