Journal of Northeastern University(Social Science) ›› 2023, Vol. 25 ›› Issue (6): 139-146.DOI: 10.15936/j.cnki.1008-3758.2023.06.016

• Linguistics and Literature • Previous Articles    

Spatial Writing and Identity Negotiation in Gurnah's Pilgrims Way

GAO Tian, HUANG Hui   

  1. (School of Chinese Language and Literature, Central China Normal University, Wuhan 430079, China)
  • Published:2023-11-27
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Abstract: Pilgrims Way is the second novel by Abdulrazak Gurnah, winner of the 2021 Nobel Prize in Literature. It is also his first work to describe the living conditions and identity dilemma of African immigrants in the context of exile. The writer constructs the regional space with the spatial perception and physical roaming of Daud in a British town, combines Daud's resistance to racial discourse in his fantasy and his recollection of the violent history of local ethnic groups to form the spiritual space, and constructs the social space with the dialogues of different ethnic ideologies and discourse systems. It presents the marginalization of Daud, the confusion and anxiety of ambiguous identity and the difficult process of identity negotiation. According to the construction of three spatial forms of region, spirit and society, Gurnah uses “pilgrimage” as the core of the spatial metaphor to refer to the bankruptcy of the Empire pilgrimage of Daud, the satire of the missionary whitewash of colonial sins in East Africa and an active attempt to construct cultural identity by deconstructing the mask of imperial belief and ethnic discourse through rebellious pilgrimage.

Key words: Abdulrazak Gurnah; Pilgrims Way; space; identity negotiation

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