Exploring the Concept of Home in Yaa Gyasi's 'Homegoing' at University of Baghdad
Delve into the intergenerational trauma and complex idea of 'home' in Yaa Gyasi's novel 'Homegoing' through the lens of Asst. Lect. Hasan Thamer Hasan at University of Baghdad. Gyasi's work challenges traditional notions of belonging and origins, highlighting the fluid nature of home and its impact on individuals' identities. Discover the historical inspiration behind the novel and the profound emotional connections tied to the concept of home, as reflected in the characters' experiences.
Download Presentation
Please find below an Image/Link to download the presentation.
The content on the website is provided AS IS for your information and personal use only. It may not be sold, licensed, or shared on other websites without obtaining consent from the author. If you encounter any issues during the download, it is possible that the publisher has removed the file from their server.
You are allowed to download the files provided on this website for personal or commercial use, subject to the condition that they are used lawfully. All files are the property of their respective owners.
The content on the website is provided AS IS for your information and personal use only. It may not be sold, licensed, or shared on other websites without obtaining consent from the author.
E N D
Presentation Transcript
University of Baghdad College of Education for Women The Concept of Home in Yaa Gyasi s Homegoing Asst.Lect.Hasan Thamer Hasan 13,November
Keywords : Intergenerational trauma & Home Homegoing explores this phenomenon by delving into the experiences of its protagonists who struggle with homelessness, social exclusion, the erosion of their cultural heritage, and other challenges stemming from their dispossession and trauma. ancestral history of
Gyasi acknowledges that home is a human desire and that ideas of belonging and origins cannot simply be discarded or dismissed. However, the novel also makes clear that home does not simply exist and that it is neither organic nor unproblematic. It rather is a fluid experience and constantly in the making, and it can trigger both positive and negative feelings. The novel can thus be helpful in reframing reductive debates around home that have frequently been stuck between a celebration of homelessness and mobility or a conservative glorification of essentialist and defensive notions of home.
The idea for the novel came to Gyasi when visiting the Cape Coast Castle in Ghana, where she learned of the luxurious upstairs quarters housing African wives of British slavers, directly above the hellish dungeons where captives were crammed for weeks or months before being marched through the Door of No Return onto a slave ship.
Yet our psychological habitat is shaped by what you might call the magnetic property of home, the way it aligns everything around us. Perhaps you remember a moment, coming home from a trip, when the house you call home looked, for a moment, like just another house on a street full of houses. For a fraction of a second, you could see your home as a stranger might see it. But then the illusion faded and your house became home again. That, I think, is one of the most basic meanings of. home a place we can never see with a stranger s eyes for more than a moment
And there s something more. When my friend died, I went back to our house, where we d lived together. It wasn t only his absence i felt. It was as though something had vanished from every object in the house. They had, in fact, become merely objects. The person whose heart and mind could bind them into a single thing a home had gone. The moment you think of something that makes you feel safe.
