REMEMBERING EMPIRE: MEMORY, IDENTITY, AND HISTORICAL CONSCIOUSNESS IN TAYEB SALIH’S SEASON OF MIGRATION TO THE NORTH AND KAZUO ISHIGURO’S THE REMAINS OF THE DAY
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.69980/fvhdz194Keywords:
Historical Consciousness, Postcolonialism, Memory, Empire, Identity, Historiography, Tayeb Salih, Kazuo IshiguroAbstract
The present paper examines the reconstruction of historical consciousness in Tayeb Salih’s Season of Migration to the North and Kazuo Ishiguro’s The Remains of the Day. Using a qualitative, interpretative and comparative approach. The study analyzes how both novels revisit the past through retrospective narration and personal experience. Drawing on the postcolonial theories of Edward Said, Homi K. Bhabha, and Gayatri Chakravorty Spivak, it explores the relationship between empire, memory, identity, and marginalized perspectives. The analysis demonstrates that selected texts question dominant historical narratives by foregrounding individual recollection, cultural negotiation, and overlooked experiences. It further reveals that imperial legacies continue to shape selfhood and historical understanding beyond the formal end of colonial rule. By presenting identity as fluid and historical knowledge as interpretive, the novels challenge claims of historical certainty and authority. The study concludes that both works construct a distinctly postcolonial historical consciousness in which the past remains open to revision, negotiation, and competing interpretations.
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