Nuruddin Farah: variations on the theme of return

Naicker, Kamil

Title: Nuruddin Farah: variations on the theme of return
Creator: Naicker, Kamil
Date Issued: 2020
Date: 2020
Type: text
Type: article
Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/149643
Identifier: vital:38871
Identifier: https://www.ajol.info/index.php/tvl/article/view/196356
Description: This article explores the role of the returnee protagonist in selected works of Nuruddin Farah. Nadine Gordimer described Farah as “one of the real interpreters” of Africa and this article argues that Farah’s returnees operate as interpreters themselves, their liminality working to mediate between international readers and “local” subject matter. However, it also observes that Farah, who spent decades in exile, is often as preoccupied with writing non-belonging as he is with rendering Somalia itself. Farah’s returnee narratives are, broadly, novels of redress, in which characters enact their return in an attempt to seek out the missing, rebuild the lost or reclaim the stolen, with imperfect results. In exploring these variations on homecoming, the paper investigates the ways in which Farah’s body of work reflects shifts in identity politics over time, and the unique pressures these shifts exert on the homecoming arc.
Format: 9 pages
Format: pdf
Language: English
Relation: Tydskrif vir letterkunde
Relation: Naicker, K., 2020. Nuruddin Farah: Variations on the theme of return. Tydskrif vir letterkunde, 57(1), pp.88-95.
Relation: Tydskrif vir letterkunde volume 57 number 1 88 95 May 2020 2309-9070
Rights: Publisher
Rights: Use of this resource is governed by the terms and conditions of the Tydskrif vir letterkunde Copyright Notice Statement (https://www.ajol.info/index.php/tvl/about/submissions)

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Naicker, Kamil (Dr)

RU Department of Literary Studies in English

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