Ahdaf Soueif's "Sandpiper": A Narrative Identity in a Liminal Space

Document Type : Original Article

Authors

1 1 Department of English Language / College of Basic Education, Mustansiriyah University, Iraq

2 Department of English Language/ College of Education for Humanities/ University of Diyala/ Iraq

3 History Department/ College of Basic Education/ University of Diyala/ Iraq

Abstract

Self-fulfillment and homecoming are very complex psychological processes to achieve. To find oneself in a liminal space complicates these processes for he /she will experience ambivalent feelings. Such feelings are usually experienced by immigrants whose values and traditions clash with those of the host culture. Having set her feet in the West in pursuit of the dream of completing her higher studies in Britain, the Arab writer Ahdaf Soueif (1950- ) has gone through the feelings of uncertainty and unrest. However, Soueif finds in writing a means to vent out her adverse feelings as well as those of her protagonist. In her semiautobiographical short story "Sandpiper" (1994), she reflects on her protagonist's conflicting cross-cultural lived experiences. The paper demonstrates how Soueif has made use of travel narrative/rhetoric as a medium wherein she can culturally mediate between her homeland (Egypt) and her new country (Britain) while exposing the feelings of anxiety and discomfort of her interracially married characters.
The paper analyzes Soueif's "Sandpiper" in the light of the psychological concept of narrative identity by Dan P. McAdams and the postcolonial concepts of liminality by Homi Bhabha and contrapuntal thinking by Edward Said. In addition to defining these concepts, the paper examines how these theoretical frameworks truly apply to Soueif's narrative discourse and her female protagonist. Moreover, it answers the following questions: How significant has the migration experience been for Ahdaf Soueif ?

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