NARRATING HOME AND MEMORIES IN YAA GYASI’S HOMEGOING AND SAFIA ELHILLO’S HOME IS NOT A COUNTRY
Abstract
This study examines the artistic strategies by which Yaa Gyasi’s Homegoing and Safia Elhillo’s Home
is not a Country imagine ‘Home’ and ‘Memories’ as sites of diaspora’s encounters. The study focuses
on how the two authors portray the complexities of migration and displacement, where memories of
home, whether real or imagined, become central to the characters’ sense of identity. The central thrust
of the study is to highlight the creative devices deployed by Gyasi and Elhillo to depict the
repercussions of ‘lost’ home and the burden of traumatic memories that characters in the two stories
live with. The study adopts Cathy Caruth’s trauma theory and New Historicism as theoretical
frameworks. The analysis reveals that both novels illustrate the psychological and emotional aspects of
displacement. Caruth’s trauma theory highlights how trauma is transmitted through memory, while New
Historicism contextualizes the narratives within broader socio-political histories, such as slavery and
migration. This is a qualitative research with Yaa Gyasi Homegoing and Safia Elhillo's Home is Not a
Country serving as the primary source of data while relevant sources such as library textbooks,
journals and the internet serve as the secondary source of data. The findings show that the home in
the texts is portrayed not as a fixed location but as an emotional space shaped by historical and
personal trauma. The study concludes that home and memory, interwoven with trauma, are pivotal in
defining the diasporic experience, where the past continuously influences the presentThis study examines the artistic strategies by which Yaa Gyasi’s Homegoing and Safia Elhillo’s Home
is not a Country imagine ‘Home’ and ‘Memories’ as sites of diaspora’s encounters. The study focuses
on how the two authors portray the complexities of migration and displacement, where memories of
home, whether real or imagined, become central to the characters’ sense of identity. The central thrust
of the study is to highlight the creative devices deployed by Gyasi and Elhillo to depict the
repercussions of ‘lost’ home and the burden of traumatic memories that characters in the two stories
live with. The study adopts Cathy Caruth’s trauma theory and New Historicism as theoretical
frameworks. The analysis reveals that both novels illustrate the psychological and emotional aspects of
displacement. Caruth’s trauma theory highlights how trauma is transmitted through memory, while New
Historicism contextualizes the narratives within broader socio-political histories, such as slavery and
migration. This is a qualitative research with Yaa Gyasi Homegoing and Safia Elhillo's Home is Not a
Country serving as the primary source of data while relevant sources such as library textbooks,
journals and the internet serve as the secondary source of data. The findings show that the home in
the texts is portrayed not as a fixed location but as an emotional space shaped by historical and
personal trauma. The study concludes that home and memory, interwoven with trauma, are pivotal in
defining the diasporic experience, where the past continuously influences the present
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