Kébir Sandy

Hyphenated Identities Kébir Sandy

Hyphenated Identities & Dislocated Homes in Hannif Koraichi's The Black Album & Hanan al-Shaykh's . My thesis deals with the notions of " Homes " and "identity" in the diasporic novels of Hanif kureishi's The Black Album and Hanan Al-Shaykh's Only In London. Obviously, the diasporic novel endeavors to problematize notions of identity, home, and belonging while seeking a reconciled discourse that champions the plurality of the diasporic and shun away discourses of exclusion and essentialism. The novels under study attempt at best to provide a juxtaposition between different worldviews-especially Hanif Kureishi's-; that is to say, our diasporic writers have astutely made use of different characters to represent opposing discourses of exclusion and inclusion in the diasporic space of London. Using the postcolonial approach, this thesis provides and attempt to highlight the two different discourses-mentioned above-and how Hanif Kureishi and Hanan Al-Shaykh tried to capitalize the multiplicity that the diasporic subjects envelopes within himself. My thesis, in fact, revolves around two main arguments that are the hyphenation of the diasporic identity and the dislocation of home that goes with it when in diaspora. I have tried all through the paper to discuss how the diasporic fissured identity cannot adhere to any essentialist discourse that binds it within limits of a particular culture and boundaries of a specific nation. The bulk of this paper shows that the diasporic fragmented identity-that is always becoming and never realized-must be seen within its diversified nature and should not be restricted to the homeland's conceptualization of identification or the host one.