The Transcultural Identities Found in Leila Aboulela’s Elsewhere, Home

Abstract

This study specifically examines the transformation of the concepts of identity, belonging, and faith within the context of postmigration narratives with a particular emphasis on the work of Leila Aboulela. Moreover, it explores the shifting meanings and approaches to these concepts within the postmigrant framework found in Aboulela`s Elsewhere, Home. In this work, Aboulela has shifted away from focusing on the displacement of individual characters and has instead embraced a perspective that views migration as a process of engagement and participation rather than integration. Furthermore, this perspective considers migration a transcultural phenomenon rather than solely a transnational one. Moreover, this study places significant emphasis on the transforming role played by postmigrant characters who possess the ability to cultivate coherent forms of belonging that extend beyond essentialized conceptions of ethnicity, nationality, and collective identities as they contribute to the transcultural ethics.