I Dreamt of Saltwater and Eggs: Magic, Nationhood, and the Writer-out-of-Country
This dissertation includes a novel entitled I Dreamt of Saltwater and Eggs and an accom- panying critical commentary which aims at examining themes and issues of post-colonial and commonwealth fiction in relation to the context of Cyprus. The novel is a magical realist story about a boy who sets out to find the girl he is in love with, while at the same time an anti-colonial fight breaks out in his homeland, Sarouiki. During his travels he is confronted with questions of identity, belonging and nationhood. While extensive research has been conducted on post-colonial writing and the over- running themes in fiction which falls under this category, Cyprus has remained fairly un- explored, mainly due to the fact that its anti-colonial struggle and post-colonial trauma are not deemed important enough. The thesis of this project is that magical realism as a genre is an organic occurrence that is interlinked with the post-colonial trauma in various countries. Magical realism serves as a way of seeing the world by using magic to understand the human dimensions of history. It is a way of reaching historical, national, and political truths and is thus a natural way of expression for post-colonial writers. By focusing on Cyprus, a fairly uninvestigated area of post-colonial writing, we can expand our understating of the issues and themes linked to this body of literature. As a Cypriot writer, I look at the ways in which I wrote I Dreamt of Saltwater and Eggs and how post-colonial discourses emerged in their creative process, and by doing so, I create the space to further explore minor post-colonial literatures in the light of the global issues they are linked to.
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