Divided Identity and Displaced Self in Fadia Faqir’s My Name is Selma

Abstract

The attempt to come to terms with the meaning of home and identity, both literally and metaphorically, has become a major concern in literary studies. This dissertation explores the representations of displacement and divided identity from the point of view of Arab British novelist. Home, which contains various references to architectural structures, nations, states, or belonging, can no longer be thought of as a generalized or unified experience. For the displaced writer, the concept of home takes shape as a result of interaction between the past and the present, with memory playing a powerful role. It is created as a result of various forces in tension that include personal and national experiences, the context within which migration from the traditional home place occurred. We argue through the exploration of the novel written by Fadia Faqir whose protagonist fled from her home country that the concept of home can no longer be referred to as a generalized, definite or a fixed notion. This study examines the effects of Diaspora and displacement in the protagonist as presented in Faqir’s My Name is Salma (2007). It looks at the role played by these effects in the construction of ideas of home and identity in the characters. Displacement is studied here against a backdrop of a long history of movements brought about by exile and voluntary migrations. It deals with ideas of the self identity in the middle forces of displacement and exile. It presents a shifting idea of home as people move from one point to another and it looks at ideas of home as posited by different theorists in relation to the displaced and scattered people