Re-creating Migrant Identity: Analysing Trauma in Deepak Unnikrishnan's Temporary People

Identity and the concept of 'home' are invariably linked to the discussions on migrant literature. The dislocation of migrants leaves them with a mangled perception of the concept of 'home' and their identity is constantly under threat. Trauma theory can be an effective tool to understand problematisation of migrant identity as portrayed in migrant literature. The present paper aims to analyse the re-creation of migrant identity in Deepak Unnikrishnan's novel Temporary People (2017) which maps the lives of migrants in the Gulf by applying propositions of Jeffrey Alexander's theory of cultural trauma and trauma process. As a debut novel, it was the inaugural winner of the Restless Books Prize for New Immigrant Writing. In a series of randomly narrated stories, the author re-creates the identity of migrants in the Gulf through various narrative techniques, especially magical realism. Each chapter in the novel displays the deliberate flouting of conventions in order to re-present the migrant's condition. The paper also explores how transnationalism is reflected in the novel and its relation to the trauma process.