Colonial Displacement and the Fragmentation of Belonging in Abdulrazak Gurnah’s Paradise and Afterlives

Abstract

This study examines how displacement, psychological trauma and identity reconstruction are portrayed in Abdulrazak Gurnah’s Paradise (1994) and Afterlives (2020). Drawing on postcolonial theory and trauma theory, the paper explores how colonial violence, forced migration, and cultural erasure fracture the characters’ sense of self and belonging. The discussion illustrates that displacement in Gurnah’s narratives is not merely geographical, but also emotional and psychological, leaving characters suspended between lost homelands and an unstable future. The analysis further reveals that trauma emerges both from personal choices and from oppressive historical forces, producing wounds that persist across time, space and generations. Despite these sufferings, the novel demonstrates that identity can be reconstructed through memory, resilience, love and acts of self-definition. Due to its textual nature, the study adopts a qualitative research paradigm and employs close textual analysis as its primary method of inquiry. The findings reveal that the characters in the two novels endure multi-layered displacement, which leads to trauma, identity fragmentation and psychological suffering. However, the study further demonstrates that through memory, resilience and acts of self-reclamation, the characters gradually reconstruct a sense of identity. The study concludes that Gurnah’s works illuminate the long-term effects of colonialism while also emphasising the possibility of healing and restored identity.