Reconstructing Identity and Cultural Resistance in Bakhtiyar Ali’s Symbolic Narratives: From Colonial History to Alternative Collective Memory

Articles in Press

Document Type : Original Article

Author

Assistant Professor, Department of Cinema, Faculty of Art and Architecture, University of Kurdistan, Kurdistan, Iran

10.22034/scart.2025.143423.1719

Abstract

Minority literature—particularly in postcolonial contexts and oppressed societies—has often served as one of the most important tools for preserving collective memory and reconstructing cultural identity. Within this framework, Bakhtiyar Ali’s works stand out as key exemplars: through magical realism, multilayered narrative structures, and rich symbolism, they become arenas for challenging official historical narratives and reconstructing collective memory. This interdisciplinary study analyzes the foundational role of these works in representing and reinforcing cultural identity and resistance, and asks: How can Bakhtiyar Ali’s narratives and conceptual strategies elevate marginalized identities from the position of victimhood to that of active agency? The theoretical framework is grounded in the sociology of literature, postcolonial criticism, and theories of memory, and the research relies on a qualitative and interpretive methodology. Findings reveal that Ali, by drawing on central cultural symbols and creating heterotopic spaces, challenges dominant narratives and breaks linear conceptions of time, enabling redefinition of identity and recovery of silenced voices. Love as a political act, the body as an archive of trauma, and music as an anti-colonial discourse emerge as central strategies of resistance in his works. This research shows that Ali’s novels reflect the aesthetics of resistance within Kurdish literature, while simultaneously engaging in a transnational dialogue with global postcolonial literature, highlighting the power of literature to reconstruct imagined worlds as a political act.

Keywords

Main Subjects

Sociology of Culture and Art

Articles in Press, Accepted Manuscript
Available Online from 17 October 2025

Files

Share

How to cite

Statistics