REFIGURATION OF MIGRANT TEMPORALITY: ANALYZING HAMID’S EXIT WEST THROUGH TEMPORAL DISPLACEMENT THEORY

Abstract

This research focuses on Mohsin Hamid’s novel Exit West, a contemporary work that portrays the realities of conflict, migration, and forced movement. The novel presents how ordinary lives are interrupted by violence and how people struggle to adjust when their sense of place and time is disturbed. This research aims to examine how displacement affects human experience, particularly how individuals understand time, identity, and belonging. The study also seeks to explore the emotional and psychological effects of migration on the characters. Another objective is to analyze how moments of uncertainty create a sense of temporal confusion, in which the past and future lose clear meaning. This research uses a qualitative approach based on close textual analysis. The primary source is the novel Exit West, while secondary sources include critical writings, scholarly articles, and theoretical texts related to migration and time. The study applies Temporal Displacement Theory to explain how time becomes fragmented when people are forced to leave their homes. According to this framework, time is experienced emotionally rather than chronologically during periods of crisis. This research uses a qualitative approach, where findings suggest that displacement changes not only physical location but also the inner perception of time. Characters exist in a suspended condition, caught between memory and uncertainty. The study shows that Exit West presents displacement as a powerful force that reshapes human identity and lived experience