“Lovers on the ayre”: Love as a Means and Metaphor of Identity Construction in Suhayl Saadi’s Psychoraag
“Lovers on the ayre”: Love as a Means and Metaphor of Identity Construction in Suhayl Saadi’s Psychoraag

Summary/Abstract: In psychology, postmodernity is perceived as having detraditionalized our understanding of and attitude to love and intimate relationship, as a result of which postmodern relationships are viewed as being built on and determining a change in emotional and sexual intimacy, the significance of sexual satisfaction, as well as developments in the process of individualisation. In postmodern literature, as Catherine Belsey points out, “love becomes the condition of a happiness that cannot be bought” and “has come to represent presence, transcendence, immortality” (683). In diaspora literature, these changes and developments connected to love, and happening when the individual experiences the presence and transcendence of love, are often further intensified and complicated by issues of race, ethnicity and religion. In all its complexities and individual perceptions, postmodern love is often depicted as closely related to or intertwined with the process of the diasporic subject’s search for identity. Close reading Suhayl Saadi’s Psychoraag (2004), an experimental novel with postmodern text(uality), and its portrayal of the role of identity positions and the transformative power of music and love/intimacy in personal development, the paper examines the protagonist-narrator DJ Zaf’s mental and physical journeys with regards to his two intimate relationships from the aspect of the diasporic subject’s identity crisis. I shall argue that the protagonist’s relationships – and by extension, love itself – are essential stages of his ‘journey,’ unalienable parts of his multiple selves, as well as inevitable elements and the ultimate metaphor of identity construction.

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