POLITICS OF UNHOMELINESS IN THE TRANSLATOR BY LEILA ABOULELA

Abstract

This research analyzes the sense of alienation and unhomeliness that overwhelms Muslim immigrants in Europe, through reflecting upon Leila Aboulela’s first novel, The Translator. Attention is paid to biographical details of the author and the way they have shaped who she has become. This descriptive analytical research foregrounds the contributions of postcolonial critics, such as Edward Said and Frantz Fanon. In fact, the novel is regarded as socio-political field, where Eurocentric imperialism corners diaspora spaces into the margins of the metropolis. The article brings about the temporal distortion and the dissociation from the present-moment that usually accompany the immigrant in unwelcoming exile. It demonstrates how the protagonist entirely withdraws from the present and retreats into the past, which serves as a psychological refuge from the adversity of exile. It also attributes such a withdrawal to the immigrant’s inability to envision a viable future within the hostile host society.