Wounds of Exile: Personal and Political Displacement in Jhumpa Lahiri's The Lowland and Ahmed Saadawi's Frankenstein in Baghdad

Abstract

This article critically discusses exile and displacement based on Jhumpa Lahiri's The Lowland and Ahmed Saadawi's Frankenstein in Baghdad. Both novels probe into serious personal and political disturbances that are either experienced individually or more generally in situations of socio-political turmoil. The story of The Lowland describes the emotional impact of migration, fragmented identities, and the ties that bind a family through political turmoil during the Naxalite movement in India. Twin faces of exile—that of physical displacement and of affective dislocation—find an illustration in the career of Subhash and Gauri, the two twins torn between their trying to adjust to a new culture in America only to be haunted by unresolved traumas traceable back to their homeland. By contrast, Frankenstein in Baghdad places exile within the context of the political collapse of Iraq, whereby the disintegration of national unity reflects the fracturing of individual identities. Saadawi's deployment of the Frankenstein monster as an icon serves as a potent metaphor for alienation and identity crises driven by violence and sectarianism, embodying the internal political displacement of Iraq since the invasion. The article represents a comparative analysis and shows how two novels can expose the moment when private and political exile converge. It underlines that exile is not just physical removal, but rather an immersion into emotional and even psychic alienation. The discussion that follows now begins by eroding the sense of belonging among the characters due to political turmoil, which in turn compels them to journey through changing social landscapes.