NAVIGATING IDENTITY IN EXILE: A READING OF DIASPORIC EXPERIENCES IN SHAFAK’S THE ISLAND OF MISSING TREES (2021)
Keywords:
Belonging, Cultural Inheritance, Diaspora, Displacement, Exile, Hybridity, Identity, Intergenerational MemoryAbstract
This
paper explores the negotiation of identity and belonging in Elif Shafak’s The Island of Missing Trees, focusing on the complex diasporic experiences shaped by exile, displacement, and intergenerational memory. Through an interpretive reading, the study examines how Shafak intertwines personal histories with collective trauma to depict the ways in which individuals navigate fractured cultural identities across geographical and temporal divides. The narrative’s dual settings — rooted in the political unrest of Cyprus and extended into the diasporic space of Britain — serve as a lens to analyze themes of hybridity, cultural inheritance, and the persistence of ancestral ties. By foregrounding the voices of both human and non-human narrators, Shafak constructs a multi-layered portrayal of exile that transcends the boundaries of time, place, and species, inviting reflection on the resilience of identity in the face of displacement. The paper argues that the novel offers a nuanced exploration of diaspora as a site of both loss and renewal, where memory becomes an act of survival and identity remains a fluid, evolving construct.
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