Abstract
This paper explores the fictional representation of the Syrian refugee crisis in Khaled Hosseini's novel Sea Prayer (2018). The novel is considered a refugee narrative, examining the question of home, displacement, and the fateful journeys of the Syrian refugees. The novel depicts the heart-wrenching experiences of the refugee community in war-torn Syrian city Homs before and after the outbreak of the civil war in the country. Evoking the tragic death of Alan Kurdi, Hosseini vividly illustrates the various dimensions of the Syrian refugee crisis, including the outbreak of the civil war in Syria and the eventual birth of refugees, their homelessness/statelessness, perilous journey to escape the persecution, xenophobic attitudes towards them, and post-war trauma. This paper draws on postcolonial refugee narratives, concept of journeys of non-arrival, memory, and trauma studies to elucidate its argument. The contention here is that the current crisis in Syria is also accounted for by analyzing the fictional refugee narratives. The unspeakable trauma is communicated through fiction, and Hosseini’s novel depicts the dangers engulfed and the hope entrusted in the refugees’ journeys.
Highlights
The refugee crisis has always been a pressing issue encountered by the entire humanity since time immemorial
One can hardly see any difference in the rate of refugee flow before and after the emergence of modern nation-states unless the motives behind the refugee productions
Refugee narrative as a fictional account is employed as a medium to perceive various dimensions of the crisis
Summary
The refugee crisis has always been a pressing issue encountered by the entire humanity since time immemorial. The current refugee crisis that we see in the Middle East, especially in Syria, has turned out to be the most consequential one in the history of humanity. The regime began to implement violent crackdowns on any form of anti-government expressions quite often This hostile attitude of the regime led to bitter conflicts between the State and the civilians over the past ten years. Four major geopolitical events have had deep and long-term destructive effects in Africa and the Middle East and their populations: the invasion of Afghanistan and the fall of the Taliban regime in 2001, the invasion of Iraq in 2003 and expansion of ISIS insurgency, the successive civil uprisings and revolutions in the Arab world leading to the beginning of the war in Syria in March 2011, and the fall of the Gaddafi regime in Libya in October. Exit West (2017), written by Mohsin Hamid, A Land of Permanent Goodbyes (2018) by journalist turned novelist Atia Abawi, and The Silence and the Roar (2013) by Nihad Sirees are a few novels that vividly translate the subtleties and the entanglements of the Syrian refugee crisis into literature
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