Date of Award

8-2026

Document Type

Thesis

Degree Name

Master of Arts (MA)

Department

English

Committee Chair/Advisor

Cameron Bushnell

Committee Member

Angela Naimou

Committee Member

Vincent Ogoti

Abstract

Diaspora studies have often theorized exile as a shared condition of postcolonial displacement, sometimes transforming historically and culturally specific experiences of exile into universal metaphors of loss. While such scholarship illuminates narratives of dislocation and (un)belonging, it frequently relies on a homogenizing discourse of home in comparative analysis, obscuring the distinct geopolitical forces that shape individual histories. Studies of the African diaspora similarly frame intergenerational displacement as a unified search for home, emphasizing a homing desire more than the historical and sometimes, mystic conditions that make such a search fraught, while critics such as Edward Said extend exile into a broader existential metaphor of modernity.

Building on these debates, this thesis examines Négar Djavadi’s Disoriental (2018) and Yaa Gyasi’s Homegoing (2016) to argue that exile operates not as a universal condition but as a multiplanar experience shaped by historical memory, cultural inheritance, and spiritual continuity. Through close readings of the novels’ use of storytelling, intergenerational narration, and elements of magical realism and spectral presence, the study demonstrates how exile unfolds across geographic, temporal, and metaphysical dimensions. By placing the two texts in conversation, the thesis highlights how their shared thematic concerns and their distinct historical and cultural frameworks that diverge from universalizing models of exile.

Author ORCID Identifier

https://orcid.org/0009-0004-9310-2088

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