International Journal of Language & Literature

The Myth of a Migrant Utopia in Helon Habila’sTravellers
Ekikereobong Aniekan USORO, Kikanwa Enoabasi ONYEMA

Abstract
The literary world teems with mythical narratives and their dissenting counterparts drawn from the wellspring of human experience, including narratives concerning man‘s primal yearning for greener pastures which has caused a peak influx of migrants into foreign territories in the 21st century. From among these narratives, this paper undertakes a study on the myth of a migrant utopia in Helon Habila‘s Travellers. With the theoretical provision of postcolonialism, specifically AtoQuayson‘s postcolonial tenet of ‗postcolonializing‘, this paper highlights not only the harsh realities of a migrant journey but also how the events in the novel follow the lingering pathways of colonial history. Alongside other things, the analysis demonstrates that the marginalised and impoverished spaces occupied by migrants are not isolated incidents but a haunting recurrence of the spatial segregation traceable to colonial systems. Even beyond the primary settings of Travellers, Habila‘s characters reference other lands equally barren of the mythical migrant utopia, suggesting its nonexistence not only within the novel‘s confines but in the broader world as well.

Full Text: PDF      DOI: 10.15640/ijll.v12n2a3