Yusuf in The Well: Contemporary Prophet and His Self-Search in Abdulrazak Gurnah’s Paradise

Abstract

It cannot be denied that art and literature constitute an important part of life. Artists are master individuals who hold a mirror to life and create their works by distilling the essence of life into them. Artists are responsible individuals who do not turn their backs on the realities of the society they live in but transform those realities into art by using their ability to re-construct it. For hundreds of years, they have been inspired by the religious and cultural codes of the societies they live in and use them as raw materials for their art. One of these master artists, African-born Abdulrazak Gurnah, who is also one of the contemporary British writers, is one of those who masterfully fictionalizes reality like his previous generations of writers. The author fictionalizes, in Paradise, the Qur’anic story of Prophet Yusuf and creates a modern prophet. In the novel, the author, who centers his narrative on themes such as rootlessness, slavery, and marginalization, tries to highlight the problems that African societies are subjected to. In this study, the real-life story of Prophet Yusuf and the African Yusuf, who is a fictional character, will be examined in the context of religion and fiction, and the difficulties faced by Yusuf character during his identity formation and self-development will be examined.