A Study of Gurnah’s Memory Narrative and Diaspora Identity

Abstract

The Nobel Prize for Literature has been won by 70-year-old Tanzanian novelist Abdulrazak Gurnah for “his uncompromising and compassionate penetration of the effects of colonialism and the fate of the refugees in the gulf between cultures and continents”. “Refugees” highlights the issue of identity, while the transferring of cultural continent highlights diaspora, and memory narrative is a characteristic of his writing, which can be adopted to explore the symptoms of identity exfoliation and diaspora. This paper, by focusing on the theories of memory and diaspora identity from the perspective of Gurnah’s memory narrative, aims to explore the racial identity, focusing on the antagonism and hatred between races in the post-colonial context, the hybrid identity in the context of family diaspora, the social identity in the context of group culture, and the female identity in the development of individuality.Memory is an important texture that underlines Gurnah’s writing and his perception and deep thinking on identity provides a multidimensional entry point for the international literary world with unique personal characteristics and humanistic care in the global context. Racial identity, focusing on the antagonism and hatred between races; hybrid identity, the impotence of immigrants, unable to establish their own identity; social identity, the alienation of marginalized people and the young generation’s powerless sense of colonial culture; female identity, women’s weightlessness under gender pressure.