Listening to Silence: Media and Intergenerational Memory in Abdulrazak Gurnah’s The Last Gift

This article examines the interplay between media technologies and intergenerational memory in Abdulrazak Gurnah’s The Last Gift by conceptualising media as a mnemonic apparatus operating through three stages of mediation. First, the radio functions as a unidirectional colonial instrument, instigating a psychological fracture and foundational silence in the father, Abbas, revealing the ongoing colonial trauma. Second, media reshape the perceptual structures of diasporic generations; whereas the first generation remains entangled in repressed anger and silence, the second generation utilises media to decipher and dismantle imperial logic. Finally, multi-sensory media emerge as a site of intellectual labour, fostering a hospitable mode of listening to negotiate mnemonic exclusion. By reclaiming fragmented and deferred narratives through this ethics of “listening to silence”, the novel transforms memory from a static archive into a dynamic relationship, establishing an ethical space for human co-existence grounded in the recognition of shared vulnerability.