Liminality and Cultural Identity in Gurnah’s Gravel Heart

Abstract

This article explores Gurnah’s Gravel Heart from Bhabhian perspectives of liminality and cultural identity through immigrant experiences of the protagonist Salim who faces identity crisis, relational positioning and racial prejudice. Gurnah is of the view that immigrants are always in a liminal space, experiencing ‘in-between-ness’ and as they try to assimilate with the new culture, identity crises emerge. In this process of assimilation, immigrants feel like they are divided into two parts. They have traits of this new culture now but cannot overlook the norms and culture of their native lands as well. They find themselves at liminal space where no matter how hard they try to save their culture, it still gets hybrid and new elements of the host culture, they interact with, continue to become a part of their lives, which in turn, reshape their identity.