Psychological Border(ing) and Identity Crisis at Borderlands: Analysis of Abdullah Hussein’s Emigre Journeys
Keywords:
Othering, Psychological Borders, Identity Crisis, Hybridity, State of Confusion.Abstract
Borderlands are not only physical areas but are also thought of as mental and psychological spaces for the inhabitants. Gloria Anzaldua (1987) talks about the psychological borders dichotomizing them as safe and unsafe spaces, highlighting the fact that the ensuing manipulation, anger and hatred become the key features, when people from different regions, with varying cultural backgrounds, occupy the same territory. This situation leaves a considerable impact on the psyche of immigrants and they become identity conscious. Using Anzaldua’s notion of psychological borders as the theoretical framework, the present study analyzes Abdullah Hussein’s Émigré Journeys with focus on identity consciousness, hybridity and psychological conflict. This research is an attempt to show the role of psychological borders in the construction of the identity of the main characters as others. It focuses on three questions: What are the psychological borders and how are they developed by both hosts and immigrants? How do psychological borders play a role in the treatment of immigrants as “other” in Abdullah Hussein’s Émigré Journeys? In what ways do psychological borders keep the immigrants at periphery and generate radicalized images of the members of immigrant community? The study attempts at exploring that the host community others the Muslim immigrants because of the presence of psychological borders and the Muslim immigrants face maltreatment and hatred from the host side.
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