Rhizomatic Networks and Posthuman Agency in Elif Shafak’s The Island of Missing Trees: Reconfiguring Memory, Identity, and Multispecies Narrativity
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.15503/jecs2026.1.797.812Słowa kluczowe:
rhizome theory, posthumanism, multispecies narratology, memory, identity, traumaAbstrakt
Thesis. This study analyses Elif Shafak’s The Island of Missing Trees (2022) through an integrated theoretical framework of Gilles Deleuze and Félix Guattari’s rhizome theory (1987) and contemporary posthumanist thought (Braidotti, 2013/2019).
Concept. Posthumanism challenges anthropocentric epistemologies, emphasising relationality, multispecies entanglements, and decentred subjectivity. Rhizome theory, meanwhile, reconceptualises memory, identity, and narrative as non-hierarchical, interconnected networks that proliferate horizontally. Utilising this combined framework, the study portrays the fig tree in the novel as a multispecies narrative agent, linking human and ecological histories, mediating intergenerational traumas, and facilitating the circulation of memory across temporal, spatial, and cultural boundaries.
Results and Conclusion. The study foregrounds that the narrative voice of the fig tree exemplifies the posthuman capacity for agency beyond the human realm, while its rhizomatic structure destabilises linear historiography and fixed identity constructs. The translocation of the fig tree between Cyprus and London illustrates the hybrid and dispersed identities generated through migration, conflict, and ecological interconnectedness. Collectively, these findings position The Island of Missing Trees as a literary articulation of posthuman memory, in which trauma and belonging emerge from interconnected multispecies assemblages rather than individual human experience.
Originality. The originality of this study lies in its synthesis of rhizomatic and posthumanist approaches. By integrating these perspectives, the analysis demonstrates that memory, trauma, and identity in Shafak’s novel are constituted as relational and distributed assemblages, highlighting the interaction of human and non-human actors in the co-creation of cultural and ecological memory.
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Bibliografia
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Prawa autorskie (c) 2026 Farhan Ahmad
Utwór dostępny jest na licencji Creative Commons Uznanie autorstwa 4.0 Międzynarodowe.
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