‘‘Voicing the Voiceless’’: The Significance of the Fictional Journalist in Jamal Mahjoub’s Travelling With Djinns (2004)
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.17507/tpls.1211.19Keywords:
Jamal Mahjoub, Travelling with Djinns, Writing Back, Fictional Journalists, History, Identity ResistanceAbstract
The present article emphasizes the role of the fictional journalist as a representative of his nation in Jamal Mahjoub’s Travelling with Djinns (2004).It equally ventures into establishing a connection between the characterization of the journalist and the postcolonial and cultural analyses, shedding light on the role of the ‘‘fourth estate’’ in giving voice to the silenced nations. The paper specifically examines how the British- Sudanese protagonist Yasin and his father committed themselves to journalism and took the responsibility to speak on behalf of their nation. Additionally, it stresses the importance of history and identity resistance to write back in the fiction of exile. Because of the journalistic restrictions and mass media dominance, Yasin turned to literature as an alternative to write back and state his counter narrative based on historical knowledge. The study bases its analysis on different postcolonial theories such as Said’s theorization on post colonialism in order to validate the significant role of the fictional journalist in voicing the voiceless.
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