294014

Minaret and My Name is Salma: Female Muslim Identity in Postcolonial Trauma Novels

Article

Last updated: 04 Jan 2025

Subjects

-

Tags

-

Abstract

Postcolonial trauma novels are interdisciplinary novels where postcolonial, trauma, memory and cultural studies intersect. Thus, postcolonial trauma fiction are narratives that discuss the impact of colonisation through self-representation and usage of the recurrent themes and styles of trauma theory. Trauma narratives serve many ends: first, they show the frequency of trauma as a multi-contextual social issue that results from different experiences. Second, they raise questions about how the individuals deal with loss and fragmentation. Third, they highlight how the surrounding environment is responsible for helping in the healing process of the traumatised and how trauma reproduces itself if not attended. Moreover, they invoke readers not only to bear testimony but also to act. Seen in this light, this paper examines Leila Aboulela's Minaret (2005) and Fadia Faqir's My Name is Salma (2007) as trauma narratives where common traumatic experiences in the Arab world, such as political instability and honour killings lead to fragmentation, exile and alienation. The traumas of the female protagonists are depicted as common predicaments of Arab women immigrants in the West that affect their sense of subjectivity due to colonial history. Minaret and My Name is Salma are read as semi- autobiographical novels that echo some of the aspects in the lives of their writers. The novels represent the identity formation/ reformation in their homelands and host lands. The role of memory and the community in the protagonists' traumatic experiences is a major point of focus in both novels.
 

DOI

10.21608/herms.2022.294014

Keywords

Postcolonial Trauma novels, Minaret, My Name is Salma, Muslim Identity, Cultural Studies

Authors

First Name

Mai

Last Name

Solaiman

MiddleName

-

Affiliation

Faculty of Languages and Translation, The Sixth of October University

Email

-

City

-

Orcid

-

Volume

11

Article Issue

4

Related Issue

39652

Issue Date

2022-10-01

Receive Date

2023-04-05

Publish Date

2022-10-01

Page Start

33

Page End

62

Print ISSN

2090-8555

Online ISSN

2974-4695

Link

https://hermes.journals.ekb.eg/article_294014.html

Detail API

https://hermes.journals.ekb.eg/service?article_code=294014

Order

6

Type

المقالة الأصلية

Type Code

1,100

Publication Type

Journal

Publication Title

هرمس

Publication Link

https://hermes.journals.ekb.eg/

MainTitle

Minaret and My Name is Salma: Female Muslim Identity in Postcolonial Trauma Novels

Details

Type

Article

Created At

25 Dec 2024