Speaker
Description
Hannah Khalil’s play A Museum in Baghdad (2019) centers on the identity crises of Gertrude, a British archaeologist assigned to open a museum in Iraq, and Ghalia, an Iraqi archaeologist living in England who is assigned to open the same museum years later. The aim of this study is to examine Gertrude and Ghalia’s identity crisis within the framework of Bauman’s understanding of identity and belonging by using the method of textual analysis. Bauman claims that identities are unstable, fluid, and continuously renegotiated. According to him, identity emerges out of a crisis of belonging. In this regard, Bauman’s theory furnishes a productive framework for analyzing Gertrude’s and Ghalia’s identity formations, which are shaped by crises such as colonialism and the struggle for belonging. Gertrude represents a Western authority’s attempt to establish identity by taking ownership of the museum. For her, the museum is more than just a place to preserve cultural heritage; it is a tool that validates the West’s claim to civilization and legitimizes its existence. However, her awareness of the destruction caused by war and colonization renders her own identity ambivalent and fragile. On the other hand, Ghalia sees the museum as a place of national belonging and shared cultural memory. This perspective highlights identity as a point of resistance; however, destruction, insecurity, and the inability to make progress drag her identity into constant questioning and disappointment. Ghalia’s oscillation between the desire to return home and the desire to flee her homeland reveals the transient and fluid nature of national identity. Both characters reveal an experience of belonging that is constantly changing, tested by crises, and redefined, rather than a fixed identity. In this context, the play portrays national identity not as an essential or permanent reality, but as a fluid process shaped by crises and made visible only through them.
| Keywords | Hannah Khalil, A Museum in Baghdad, identity crisis, Zygmunt Bauman |
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| asli.n.kahraman@outlook.com |