A Postcolonial Reading to My Father’s Rifle: A Childhood in Kurdistan
Soran Mustafa Kurdi
English Language Teaching Department, Tishk International University, Kurdistan Region, Iraq
Email: [email protected]
Published: May 15, 2023
ABSTRACT
The struggle for Kurdish identity extends from the Ottoman Empire to modern nation-states. The creation of nation-states catalyzed the transition from “feudal nationalism” to Kurdayeti. Hiner Saleem’s autobiography, My Father’s Rifle: A Childhood in Kurdistan, provides a firsthand perspective on the experiences of the marginalized Kurds in Iraqi Kurdistan. It offers insights into their social, cultural, and political contexts and power dynamics. While Saleem’s work reflects the voice of an understated people, it also requires a postcolonial reading to fully appreciate its content and structure. This study provides a postcolonial reading to Saleem’s autobiography, arguing that the narrative tries to narrate the challenges that the Kurdish ethnicity faced to preserve their ethnic and national identity within the frame of Iraq.
Keywords: Kurds, Kurdish national identity, postcolonial literature, autobiography, ethnic studies.
DOI: 10.23918/vesal2023v42