A Critique of Diaspora Identity in Sorayya Khan’s City of Spies

Abstract

Sorayya’s City of Spies (2015) reflects the transnational migration of diaspora people; who come across socio-political, religious, economic, and cultural uncertainties in the host space. Diaspora can be utilized as a suitable device to break down the novel for new interpretations and it also stresses the multiple effects of globalization. The study while putting Aliya’s struggle for identity (Bhabha’s concept of identity puts that it is always in the process and never a finished product) in context, argues that migrants experience nostalgia, and post-memory for their homeland which Brah terms as ‘desire for home’ while trying to create a home where they live, which she terms as ‘homing desire’. The present research uses the theoretical markers of Homi K Bhabha and Avtar Brah to delineate the subject of diaspora identity. This study concludes that migrants oscillate between two worlds and that they are still in a restless state while struggling to find out their identity.