Honour and Shame in the Construction of Difference in Abdulrazak Gurnah's Novels

Abstract

In Abdulrazak Gurnah's writings, characters invoke idea(l)s of honour/reputation/ dignity as contrasts of obverse attributes like shame/shamelessness to demarcate social, economic, religious and racial boundaries. Whether pronounced or simply performed, these characters’ claims to honour are summoned to claim more honourable positions for themselves and project dishonourable identities onto others. Reading the various manifestations of honour and its oppositional attributes in Gurnah's novels, I suggest that these socio-cultural/religious values remain ambiguous, paradoxical and tenuous, and should therefore be apprehended against the backdrop of competing nationalisms, historical inequalities and are largely survivalist strategies of dealing with the predicament of powerlessness in a climate of various forms of economic, political and numerical domination.