A Postcolonial Critique of the Novel Mohajer-e Sarzamin-e Aftab

Document Type : Research Paper

Author

Vali-e-Asr university of Rafsanjan

10.22103/jrl.2025.25610.3062

Abstract

Postcolonial criticism, as an analytical approach in literary, cultural, and social studies, examines the historical consequences of colonialism. This approach, by focusing on concepts such as domination, cultural denigration, resistance, and inequality, seeks to reveal how colonialism has shaped societies and individuals, and plays a vital role in text analysis through analyzing the political, social, and cultural outcomes of colonialism. On the other hand, resistance literature represents resistance against the domination of enemies and often addresses the social, cultural, and even psychological challenges arising from encounters with systems of power. The book ‘Mohajer-e Sarzamin-e Aftab’ (The Immigrant from the Land of the Sun), which recounts the memoir of the only Japanese mother of a war martyr in Iran, stands as a prominent example of migration literature that, due to its simultaneous positioning within both migration literature and resistance literature, further underscores the importance of the present study. This study aimed to examine the book ‘The Immigrant from the Land of the Sun’ with particular emphasis on its colonial concepts and to analyze the consequences of colonialism as reflected in the work.
This study employed a descriptive-analytical method to address the following questions: What impact has the experience of colonialism had on the characters in this story? What fundamental postcolonial concepts are reflected in this work? And what challenges are articulated in the path of migration? The results indicated that concepts such as subaltern, self and Other, cultural hybridity, and decolonization are clearly discernible in the narrative. The most significant challenge of migration is sociocultural differentiation. The immigrant’s identity emerges as a hybrid identity, and the experience of colonialism leads to a rethinking of identity in the protagonist, creating a space for resistance against dominant hegemonic currents.

Keywords

References

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Journal of Resistance Literature
Volume 17, Issue 33
February 2025
Pages 169-187

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