International Journal For Multidisciplinary Research

E-ISSN: 2582-2160   •   Impact Factor: 9.24

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Volume 8 Issue 4
July-August 2026

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The analysis of Social Transformation, Migration, and Structures of Power in Abdulrazak Gurnah’s Fiction

Author(s) Mr. Kavinkumar P, Dr. M. Selvam
Country India
Abstract Abdulrazak Gurnah’s fiction presents social transformation not as a sudden historical event but as a continuing process shaped by migration, colonial violence, exile, memory, and cultural negotiation. His novels repeatedly show how individuals are displaced from familiar social worlds and forced to reinterpret family, community, trade, language, belonging, and identity under changing historical conditions. This paper examines social transformation in selected works of Gurnah, particularly Paradise, By the Sea, Desertion, and Afterlives. Through a qualitative textual analysis, the study argues that Gurnah’s fiction represents transformation as both structural and personal. Social institutions do not disappear in his novels; rather, they are reorganized and refunctionalized under the pressures of colonialism, war, migration, and exile. While functionalist ideas help explain how communities seek order and continuity, conflict theory reveals how domination, class, race, colonial authority, and unequal mobility shape human experience. Gurnah’s characters rarely achieve complete liberation, yet they survive by adapting, remembering, narrating, and negotiating new forms of identity. The paper concludes that Gurnah’s contribution lies in his ability to portray migration as a force that transforms not only individuals but also the social structures through which people understand home, history, and belonging.
Keywords Abdulrazak Gurnah, Social Transformation, Migration, Refunctionalization, Colonialism, Exile, Identity, Postcolonial Fiction.
Field Arts
Published In Volume 8, Issue 3, May-June 2026
Published On 2026-06-10
DOI https://doi.org/10.36948/ijfmr.2026.v08i03.81081
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CrossRef DOI prefix of IJFMR is 10.36948/ijfmr

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