Resumen de Loss of Homeland and the Trauma of Identity

M.R. Ghanoonparvar

• Abstract In this essay, I discuss two novels by Ruḥangiz Šarifiān, The Last Dream (Āḫarin roʾyā, 2014) and Dorān (Doran, 2019), in each of which the death of a loved one causes devastating trauma for the protagonist. For one of these two female protagonists, the loss of a son and, later, a beloved companion cause trauma that produces devastating effects for the rest of her life. But at the same time, both women, who are immigrants, share another loss: the loss of their homeland. Immigration, Šarifiān suggests, is both implicitly and explicitly a major cause of trauma, which sometimes has an outward manifestation but is often hidden and slowly sucks away the life of its victim. In these two novels, the losses of loved ones cause personal and individual trauma, while the loss of homeland causes a trauma of identity.