Uneven Voices: Gender, Narrative Authority, and the Global Public Sphere in Abdulrazak Gurnah’s Afterlives

Abstract

This study examines the unequal distribution of narrative authority within the global public sphere in Afterlives through the intersections of colonial history and gendered power relations. The objective of this study was to examine uneven voices: gender, narrative authority, and the global public sphere in Abdulrazak Gurnah’s Afterlives. The study is informed by Public Sphere Theory, Postcolonial Theory, and Feminist Theory, drawing on the works of Jürgen Habermas, Homi K. Bhabha, and Judith Butler. Using a qualitative textual analysis approach, the study analyzes themes of voice, silence, memory, identity, and representation within the historical context of German colonialism in East Africa. The findings reveal that colonial history shapes narrative authority by privileging dominant historical narratives while marginalizing subaltern voices and memories. The study further demonstrates that gendered power relations determine whose voices are recognized and legitimized, with female characters frequently subjected to silencing and restricted participation within patriarchal structures. In addition, the novel portrays characters negotiating fragmented identities and contested forms of belonging under overlapping colonial and patriarchal systems of power. The study also reveals that personal memory functions as a site of resistance against colonial erasure and patriarchal domination in the construction of historical consciousness. The study concludes that Afterlives challenges dominant historical narratives by foregrounding marginalized experiences and recovering suppressed memories within the global public sphere, thereby contributing to postcolonial literary scholarship on representation, power, and historical memory.