Unhomeliness, Self-Estrangement, and Labefaction in Abdulrazak Gurnah’s Gravel Hearth

Awarded with the Nobel Prize in Literature 2021, Gurnah’s Gravel Heart can be considered as a bildungsroman, which delineates the repercussions of colonialism on the individuals of once colonized societies. It tells the story of a growing young boy who both psychologically and geographically becomes estranged from his self and his hometown due to the impacts and outcomes that the colonial powers have left on the individuals of the country. Through narrating some details of the colonial era, having started in Zanzibar in the 1890, the novel mainly focuses on the consequences that a family experience after the Zanzibar Revolution in 1963. Through this novel, Gurnah gives a message that colonization has not ended but continues in another form called cultural colonization. In this respect, underlining the societal labefaction that emerged after the colonial period and instilled the feelings of hopelessness and estrangements in the psyches of the individuals of once colonized societies, this article tries to reveal the impacts of colonization on the self through highlighting the protagonist Salim’s experiences and self-estrangement.