UNHOMELINESS AND IMMIGRANT EXPERIENCE: A POSTCOLONIAL READING OF FRANKENSTEIN

Abstract

Mary Shelley's Frankenstein is often read as a Gothic text, but as a novel written at a home away from home, it reveals many traces of "unhomeliness." Homi K. Bhabha's term for Heidegger’s concept of unheimlich is associated with the sense of alienation and estrangement from one’s environment, frequently linked to the displacement felt by diasporic subjects experiencing hybridity. This emotional in-betweenness drives both Victor Frankenstein and his Monster. From the creation of the Monster to his acquisition of language and his attempts at communication, the novel can be regarded as a textual representation of unhomeliness. The Monster’s longing for a family a home reflects his status as a psychological refugee. This essay traces these experiences through Bhabha’s seminal work The Location of Culture and illustrates how social isolation shapes the Monster’s immigrant-like experience. The findings highlight the emotional struggles faced by displaced individuals and argue that Frankenstein portrays a crisis experienced by those living in hybridity. This analysis contributes to postcolonial readings of the novel and offers a framework for further exploration of psychological displacement in literature.