Memory, Trauma and Diasporic Narrative in Vassanji’s The Magic of Saida

Abstract

: In his latest novel The Magic of Saida, Vassanji has depicted the story of a diasporic’s engagement with the land of his birth and his eventual return to the place where he truly belongs. In the paper, I have presented the thesis that the migrant’s movement away from the land of his birth, and his separation from his mother and his beloved was a traumatic event, which forever haunts his existence. By making use of the theories propounded by the trauma theorists and new research conducted by various scholars in the field, the paper studies the impact of trauma on the life of the protagonist and shows how the narrative of the protagonist itself becomes a form of healing the traumatic wounds and coming to terms with his traumatic past.