By analyzing the experiences of fictional characters through the postcolonial perspective, we can work towards creating a more comprehensive definition of home and what it means to belong. In the first section (1.2.1), Home and Migration, I will examine our traditional understandings of home and how they contribute to trauma and loss.
Dislocation and the Liminal Space
Drawing on Bhabh's thoughts and echoing his positivity, Smith suggests that migration and the experience of dislocation and liminality have become the way in which we “exist and understand ourselves in the twenty-first century. Moreover, the glorification of border space can oversimplify the complexity of the migrant experience and the politics surrounding it.
Towards a Redefinition of Home
An open understanding of the other also informs the possibility of finding home in relationships. It is the apparent idealism of the 'celebratory' interpretation that led to the advent of the third school of thought, the.
Literature Review
Nadine Gordimer’s The Pickup
In light of the above, we can consider The Pickup as a continuation of Gordimer's interest in In summary, much of the existing critical reading of The Pickup has focused on making a connection between the novel's themes and Gordimer's earlier subject matter.
Ishtiyaq Shukri’s The Silent Minaret
In Steiner's view, the "cross-cultural links" in Shukri's narratives function as a form of resistance to stereotypical thinking and provide a way for us to understand the experience of 'the other' without political baggage and prejudice. Like Steiner, Jayawardane also emphasizes how friendship and connection with 'the other' can work against the other.
Structure of this Dissertation
In summary, previous critical readings of The Silent Minaret have focused on the formation of post-apartheid South African identities (across races), and in particular on the connections between current conceptualizations of Islam and Muslims. Although both Pucherova and Steiner address the importance of relationships as a method of creating connections, neither views relationships in the specific light of restoring a sense of home and belonging under difficult circumstances.
Chapter Two: The Pickup
Introduction
However, Gordimer continues to keep the name of Ibrahim's birthplace a secret even after the couple moves there. This sense of stereotyping Ibrahim's homeland prevents the reader from imagining the North African countryside as an attractive place (as Julie will eventually find it).
Home
This pattern of inclusion and exclusion is also a feature of less restrictive, alternative understandings of home. In this section (2.2 Home) I will discuss the homes Julie and Ibrahim live in at the beginning of the novel. In the paragraphs that follow, I will discuss the home Julie lives in at the beginning of the novel and the way it contributes to her understanding of herself and the way she wants to be perceived.
Early in the novel, Julie rents a small backyard house on someone else's property. Ibrahim's status as an undocumented immigrant means that the house he lives in at the beginning of the novel is by nature temporary. Although this quote comes from the final chapters of the novel, it offers insight into Ibrahim's understanding of a precarious home.
Dislocation
The migrant can no longer distinguish one from the other and is forced into a vision of the world that is 'as divided as it is disorienting. At the beginning of the novel, she has distanced herself23 from her family in an attempt to reconcile the privilege. Interestingly, it is this fascination with the vastness of the desert that ultimately drives Julie to redefine her understanding of home.
For example, Bhabha focuses on the benefits of a migrant's double vision: the ability to recognize the similarities between their home culture and the host culture and consequently to. Others, like Kral, believe that liminal space—the space between their previous experience of the world and their new one—provides the migrant with a kind of political power. At the beginning of the novel, Ibrahim has been living as an immigrant in South Africa for at least a year and a half.
Redefining Home
As mentioned in the first chapter (section 1.2.3.1), cultural translation, as a strategy, allows migrants to adapt their sense of identity and belonging to the context of the society in which they find themselves. Finally, Appiah's interpretation of the concept of cosmopolitanism suggests that home and belonging can be found in relationships. In the following sub-sections (2.4.1 and 2.4.2), I will examine how – at the end of the novel – Julie and Ibrahim try to redefine their understanding of home and belonging.
In this subsection (2.4.1) I will reflect on Steiner's conception of 'cultural translation', the idea that migrants can adapt their understanding of identity and belonging to the context of the society in which they find themselves. By the end of the novel, Julie has found a sense of connection in the rituals and routines of the women in Ibrahim's family. In this section I will look at how Julie's understanding of herself changes over the course of the novel and how this affects her ability to regain her sense of home and belonging.
Chapter Three: The Silent Minaret
Introduction
Like the other literary techniques, Shukri's treatment of dialogue distances the reader from Issa and deepens the sense of disorientation the reader experiences over the course of the novel; it's hard to identify emotionally with a character when so many. Issa or of the plot and are forced to remain at a distance39, regardless of how much they want to identify with the characters. The narrative techniques discussed above translate the actual experience of the migrant's alienation, disruption and confusion in host.
39 Despite such distance, it is my opinion that Issa remains the novel's narrative center, acting like the silent minaret of the title – "at home minarets declare God's greatness five times a day, but here they stand still, like darkened lighthouses” (Shukri 2005:76). The Twin Towers eventually collapsed due to the damage sustained from the impacts and the resulting fires. I will begin (in 3.2), by considering the house each of the above characters inhabits at the beginning of the novel.
Home
- Traditional Experiences of Home: Frances and Ma Vasinthe
These are all characteristics that we tend to associate with home, suggesting that our understanding of home is a vital part of how we construct our identity. There is evidence, early in the novel, to suggest that Issa finds a sense of belonging in the daily routines of his life as a student in London. Issa's apparent desire to control his environment extends to the physical arrangement of the apartment.
These critics suggest that the idea of home is "strongly connected to the rites and rituals of a family's collective life [to] reinforce the family-home connection. In the following sections, I will consider Katinka's home at the beginning of the novel and the way in which rituals she observes contribute to her sense of belonging. At the start of the novel, Katinka's home-away-from-home is a small flat in the east side of London.
Dislocation
White argues that people already 'conceptualize a number of overlapping multiple identities that are the subject of constant renegotiation in the face of the conflicts and compromises of everyday life' (1995:2). In the following paragraphs, I will discuss the ways in which Issa is shown to experience dislocation. On the day of the planned attack, the bombers were sabotaged, and the resulting premature explosion killed both of Issa's friends.
His active involvement in the struggle against apartheid is shown to be a direct result of his realization that South Africa's legal and/or privileged identity depends on the exclusion and oppression of a large part of the South African population. On the day she met Isa and Kagiso, Katinka was stranded in the Karoo after a dispute with the racist driver of the car she was traveling in58. It is interesting that the sentiment expressed here by Father Jeronimi has become increasingly widespread in the wake of the global migration crisis.
Redefining Home
- Redefining ‘Home’ (at Home): Frances and Ma Vasinthe
In the next section, I will discuss the various ways in which Issa, Katinka, and Ma Vasinthe redefine their understanding of home at the end of the novel. 65 There are several references to Issa's ritual washing in the novel, leading Frances, Katinka and Ma Vasinthe to question whether Issa has become religious. He is shown to find solace in the routines of a community united in the common goal of nationhood.
This entire section (3.4) has so far been focused on the possibilities for migrants to redefine their understanding of home in the wake of geographical or spatial. In The Silent Minaret, the characters of Frances and Ma Vasinthe demonstrate how dislocation is an inevitable part of the human experience. In the following sections, I will consider how Frances and Ma Vasinthe try to redefine their understanding of home and belonging after Issa's disappearance.
Conclusion
At the end of the novel, he chooses to continue with his goal of gaining permanent residency in the west, even though Julie stays behind in his family home. Shurkri's The Silent Minaret (2005), the subject of Chapter Three of this study, was published four years after The Pickup (2001) and depicts a world significantly changed by religious extremism and terrorism in the wake of the aforementioned terrorist attacks . At the end of The Pickup, Julie is shown to find a sense of belonging through an almost spiritual connection to the desert landscape of Ibrahim's home.
At the end of The Silent Minaret, Katinka has moved to a small Palestinian village to marry her boyfriend. In contrast, the male characters in the novels I have analyzed—Ibrahim (The Pickup) and Issa (The Silent Minaret)—do not seem to redefine their understanding of home in a meaningful way. He remains missing at the end of the novel and is shown to have experienced a high degree of anger and alienation prior to his disappearance.
Forget Maps: Documenting Global Apartheid and Creating New Cartographies in Ishtiyaq Shukri's The Silent Minaret”. Available: http://slipnet.co.za/view/reviews/the-time-of-the-twisted-guts/ (accessed 16 March 2016). International Geographics: Looking Out in Ishtiyaq Shukri's The Silent Minaret" in Research in African Literatures.
Pockets of Connection against the Backdrop of Culture Talk in Ishtiyaq Shukri's novel The Silent Minaret” in Current Writing Translated People, Translated Texts: Language and Migration in Contemporary African Literature. n.d.) Mosby's Medical Dictionary, 8th ed. Available: http://www.gallup.com/poll/157082/islamophobia- understanding-anti-muslim-sentiment-west.aspx (accessed 25 May 2016). Gender and Migration: A paper prepared for the Policy Analysis and Research Program of the Global Commission on International Migration.
