Trauma and Displacement in Leila Aboulela’s Minaret

Abstract

Abstract This dissertation explores how trauma is constructed in relation to displacement through Leila Aboulela’s selected work, Minaret (2005). Aboulela in her novel provides an authentic and rich content to explore the life in Sudan after the British colonization’s lefts. This life was characterized by multiple harsh practices rooted in the Sudanese community which led to displacement and trauma experiences among people. This study is actually discussed through a descriptive analytical approach for portraying the issue of displacement and its effects on the subject. The present research aim is up to highlight how the representation of trauma in literature is undertaken and discuss the topic of trauma and how it is formed. Thus, the research is made up of two main chapters. The first chapter is theoretical and deals with a socio-historical and a conceptual framework. The second chapter highly tackles the two themes in which the novel is analyzed. Aboulela presents the experience of a Sudanese woman in a western society, the protagonist Najwa examines an experiences of Migration and traumatic events that are caused by a series of events started with colonization. Therefore, psychoanalysis can serve as a helping guide to analyze the target themes of displacement and trauma. By the end, the study concludes that Trauma and displacement are strongly related in Minaret and that psychological traumas can be a result of displacement. Moreover, Aboulela’s examining the drastic changes in the characters' lives, and showing how to escape trauma and providing the positive and negative effects of displacement, Make Minaret, to some extent, an interesting piece to study the diaspora literature and the effects of displacement on “the other”.