Anbar University Journal of Languages & Literature

Abstract

This paper examines Elif Shafak's novel Honor, which was released in 2011, using Homi K. Bhabha's concepts of unhomeliness and hybridity. The study observes the predicament of first and second-generation immigrants from patriarchal cultures to Western societies with laws that differ from the rules of traditional communities. Those immigrants try to hybridise and adapt to the values and customs of the new culture to which they are exposed. The critical study of the novel shows the conditions of two sisters, Pempe and Jamila, who constitute the novel's cornerstone in a destitute household of eight daughters, as well as the mother's frantic attempts to conceive a son. The two sisters live in a patriarchal culture that thinks a man has the right to rule over everything. Subsequently, Pempe marries Adam Topark, and they move to England, where they experience a state of unhomeliness and hybridity. Women suffer from unhomeliness and alienation, even in patriarchal societies, as a result of patriarchal constraints.