Writing across Kurdistan Reading Social, Historical and Political Contexts in Literary Narratives

GauriViswanathan asks 'where is English literature produced?' and answers not only 'in England, of course'. This is also true of Kurdish literature, which is not only produced 'in Kurdistan, of course'. In fact, due to forced migrations, political conflicts and massacres, Kurds have mainly produced literary works outside Kurdistan. Because there is no state and there are no internationally recognized Kurdish territories, the understanding of what we mean by the term 'Kurdistan' is blurred; hence, the location of Kurdish literary work may change, as does the development of Kurdish literature, whether or not it is produced in Kurdish territory. Thus, compared to some other literary traditions, the Kurdish tradition is shaped in multiple geographies in terms of writing and publishing processes, multilingual and transnational affiliations, constant mobility and a diverse sociopolitical context that challenges and complicates the national literature, and vividly exemplifies the heterogeneity and discontinuity of national cultures. Drawing on debates on national literature and ideological texts, in this article I offer insights into Kurdish novels through readings of six novels from six spaces (Iraqi, Iranian, Syrian and Turkish Kurdistan, Soviet Armenia and the Kurdish diaspora) in order to explore the relationship between the texts and the boundaries they are set in, and to compare texts and the way they respond to different sociopolitical contexts. In these six fictional texts, I argue that the themes are usually identified with the realm of sociopolitical conflict and tension and the articulation of loss, trauma, war, the longing for return, and disappointment with the return. Furthermore I suggest that in contrast to idealized imaginary, home and nation, and patriotism in the case of statelessness or exile, these texts are articulated through critical discourses that challenge the idea of a unified national literature, and cannot be united under the sound of a single voice or stable ground.