Analyse the Representation of the Figure of the Refugee in Abdulrazak Gurnah’s By the Sea

Analyse the Representation of the Figure of the Refugee in Abdulrazak Gurnah’s By the Sea n these lines, the narrator connects the discourse on asylum with conditions of hospitality in his host country. In fact, Saleh’s situation is little better than mis- erable; he describes himself as a stranger who is only half alive (BS, 2). This rather pessimistic perspective may be rooted in his uncertain status of home on the one hand, and in his attainment of only a limited freedom on the other. In this dramati- sation of a refugee predicament, Gurnah demonstrates that, to use Derrida’s words, “the stakes of immigration do not in all rigour coincide with those of hospitality which reach beyond the civic or properly political space” (Derrida 2005, 6).
Conclusion
What are we to make of Gurnah’s portrayals of refugee predicament in light of the earlier mapped out discourse of labelling? Does Gurnah’s novel as a matter of fact offer new representational alternatives to wide-spread stereotypes? I believe it does. To me By the Sea achieves a rare quality of ‘credibility’ when the fragmented plot illuminates the two protagonists’ intertwined pasts. In this way the narrative generates a socio-historical framework of migrancy which illustrates the men’s present interpersonal relationship in Britain and their different approaches to asy- lum. Through exchanging memories both protagonists confront their excruciatingly knotted histories and generate an atmosphere of forgiveness. Moreover, the novel’s grounding in various settings of the British imperial enterprise makes By the Sea a critique of colonialism and its legacy while illustrating the different lives