Revisiting Paradise: A Dystopian Approach to Abdulrazak Gurnah's Paradise.

Abstract

The description of paradise occurs in almost all the religious scriptures. In all literature it has been described as a place where peace, innocence, pleasure and beauty are beyond earthly measures besides having God’s grace. It is the reward in life here after for which every righteous person aspires in this world. The connotation of paradise brings home the association of justice, compassion, benevolence and righteousness. Abdulrazak Gurnah is a Zanzibar born British diasporic writer who never shuns away from exposing cruelty, class conflict, caste discrimination, exploitation and slavery which existed deep rooted in the pre-colonial East African setting, otherwise viewed as the paradise of the earth. His novel Paradise traces the growth and development of its protagonist Yusuf, who is pawned off to a wealthy merchant Uncle Aziz. However, despite all the apparent beauty, the socio-littoral of this novel has a strong resemblance with a dystopian world and the motif and context of the novel can be interpreted from dystopian perspective. Besides, this article explores the strong and ironical intertextual relationship with John Milton’s epicParadise Lost from different viewpoints.