The Legacy of Empire and the Politics of the Family in the Neo-Historical Fictions of Egypt, Ireland and India

Alharthi, Laila Saad Ahmed

Abstract

This thesis addresses neo-historical novels dealing with the legacy of the British Empire and its enduring impact on family. It focuses on the colonial experience in three countries colonized by Britain: Egypt, Ireland and India. It examines fives neo-historical novels: Sunset Oasis (2007) by Bahaa Taher, The Map of Love (1999) by Ahdaf Soueif, Star of the Sea (2002) by Joseph O’Connor, The Story of Lucy Gault (2002) by William Trevor and The Inheritance of Loss (2003) by Kiran Desai. These texts revisit and reframe the colonial past to further understand the present. The novels give voice to the dispossessed of history and are set against the backdrop of major historical events: the Urabian Revolution in Egypt, the Kitchener Campaign in the Sudan, the Battle of Omdurman, the Irish Famine, the Irish War of Independence and the Gorkha Movement in India in the 1980s. These novels accentuate the impact of such events on the micro-level of the family.
This research draws on postcolonial thinking and on critical work on the historical and neo-historical novel. It focuses on the suffering of both the colonized and the colonizer during and following colonialism. It highlights the profound intricacy and multi-layering of the colonial experience as the colonized people resist colonialism but also suppress each other. It examines the entrapment of the colonized between patriotism and the need to survive in the colonial environment. It emphasizes that both the colonized and the colonizer have stereotypical views of each other. In addition, it investigates how the innocent members belonging to the colonial enterprise are haunted by the sins of the colonial past and present. This thesis scrutinizes how the marital, fraternal and parental relationships within the families of the colonized suffer under colonialism.

Citation

Alharthi, L. S. A. (2019). The Legacy of Empire and the Politics of the Family in the Neo-Historical Fictions of Egypt, Ireland and India. (Thesis). University of Hull. https://hull-repository.worktribe.com/output/4912925

• Thesis Type: Thesis
• Deposit Date: Nov 12, 2024
• Publicly Available Date: Nov 12, 2024
• Keywords: English
• Public URL: https://hull-repository.worktribe.com/output/4912925
• Additional Information: Department of English; University of Hull
• Award Date: Jul 1, 2019