Abdulrazak Gurnah’s African Antibildungsroman

Abdulrazak Gurnah is an outstanding representative of African contemporary writers.By the end of 2022,Gurnah has published ten novels and some short stories and his writing career spans more than thirty years.It is necessary to note Gurnah’s interest in Bildungsroman,which runs throughout his writing.However,in African colonial and post-colonial context,Gurnah rewrites the genre and creates unique African Antibildungsroman.Three of his novels,Paradise,Memory of Departure and Gravel Heart,are typical African Antibildungsroman in colonial or post-colonial context,which demonstrate the difficult and complex growth of indigenous African teenagers.This thesis is composed of five parts.The introduction part firstly introduces the definition and significance of Antibildungsroman.Then,it briefly reviews the history of Bildungsroman and Gurnah’s literary creation,focusing on two major notable differences between Gurnah’s unique African Antibildungsroman and classical European Bildungsroman,including the individual’s “compromise” with the society and the relationship between personal growth and national crisis.In addition,the introduction part gives a comprehensive review of the research on the three novels both at home and abroad since the 1990 s,based on which the main task and significance of the study are presented.The last part of introduction illustrates the research objects and methodology.Chapter One and Chapter Two analyze the individual’s “compromise” with the society in Gurnah’s African Antibildungsroman,focusing on the reason why the young protagonists fail to reconcile with the society.The first chapter,“Disruption of Childhood and Trauma”,focuses on the childhood of the protagonists in the three novels.Different from the traditional model in which the protagonist’s inherent conflict is between the “ideal of self-determination and the demands of socialization”,the natural growing process of African adolescents is constantly interrupted by a series of external forces in colonial and post-colonial context,resulting in severe psychological trauma.African teenagers hardly have opportunities to seek normal individual development.Paradise demonstrates the impact of colonial economic plunder and child abuse on children’s development during the colonial period.Memory of Departure depicts the twisted family influenced by colonial oppression and the protagonist’s trauma in the era of pre-independence and post-independence.Gravel Heart reflects the impact of family tragedy and silence on the psychological development of adolescents due to the oppression of political power.The second chapter,“Failed Journey of Growth”,argues that Gurnah’s colonial and postcolonial coming-of-age novels inherit the travel motif of classical European coming-of-age novels.However,unlike the classical model,the journey fails to help the protagonist become mature and eventually reconcile with society.On the contrary,the journey proves that in colonial and post-colonial context,African adolescents hardly have opportunities to achieve self-realization and reconciliation with the society.The journey to the interior of East Africa in Paradise demonstrates the squeezed survival space of adolescents caused by internal conflicts and colonial invasion in East Africa during the colonial period.The journey to Nairobi in Memory of Departure shows the cultural identity crisis influenced by Western capitalist industrial civilization as well as the impact of economic conditions on the independence of African adolescents in post-colonial period.The journey to England in Gravel Heart proves that the cultural colonization and racial discrimination of British society prevent African migrants from establishing an effective cultural identity.Chapter Three “Growth in ‘National-Historical Time’: Personal Growth and National Crisis” is based on Mikhail Bakhtin’s “man growing in national-historical time” and turns to consider the relationship between personal growth and national crisis in Gurnah’s Antibildungsroman.The three novels combine “national-historical time” with“personal-autobiographical time” by historical narrative,revealing the protagonists’ “degeneration” influenced by national crisis.In Paradise,the East African trade history leads to Yusuf’s identity confusion by deconstructing ethnic and national identity of East Africa.Yusuf’s attitude towards the stories about the Germans reflects his development of independent critical consciousness and his twisted growth in colonial context.In Memory of Departure,two mentors’ historical narrative helps Hassan combine his own development and the country’s future.Hassan’s concern about the future and destiny of the country and the people increases as he moves from innocence to experience.While Hassan’s historical narrative reflects his confusion and disappointment faced with national identity crisis in the vortex of post-independence.In Gravel Heart,parents’ historical narrative helps the protagonist review the individual trauma and family tragedy in the background of Zanzibar revolution to understand the devastating impact of revolution and the overstretching political power on the growth of ordinary people.The conclusion part summarizes the main arguments of the thesis and further analyzes the current significance of Gurnah’s African Antibildungsroman in post-colonial era as well as its contribution to the development of the genre.In fact,the characteristics and significance of Gurnah’s African Antibildungsroman are also applicable to other African writers’ literary creation of Bildungsroman.African writers criticize colonialism and imperialism by the protagonists’ “degeneration” in colonial and post-colonial context and successfully deconstruct and subvert the classical Western coming-of-age novels through the creation of African Antibildungsroman,which shows the flourishment and “growing” of the genre in colonial and post-colonial African context.