Exploring Cultural Displacement, Unhomeliness and Identity Crisis in Shamsie’s Burnt Shadows: A Transnational Dynamics

Abstract

Cultural displacements affect immigrants’ lives both physically and psychologically. Almost every migrant faces the adverse effects of leaving their home country. One way to avoid these shortcomings is through transnational ties. The present study aims to explore the themes of cultural displacement, unhomeliness, and identity crisis faced by the main characters of Shamsie’s Burnt Shadows (2009) due to forced migrations based on global dynamics. It also focuses on the strategies these characters employed to cope with their psychological dilemmas using Bhabha’s (1994) concept of “Unhomeliness” and Boccagni’s (2010) concept of “Transnationalism” as theoretical underpinnings of this study. The current research qualitatively analyzes the main characters from two clans (Weiss-Burtons and Tanaka-Ashrafs) to explore the correlation between unhomeliness and transnationalism. It seeks to interpret the effect of multiple global dynamics on an individual’s daily life. It also intends to explore the strategies they employed to negotiate their identities in new cultural contexts. The findings reveal that repeated migrations significantly impacted characters’ sense of identity and belonging. Transnational ties, however, played a crucial role in helping them navigate cultural displacement and develop a sense of home.