Home as an Impossible Return: Trauma and Postcolonial Belonging in NoViolet Bulawayo's We Need New Names

Abstract: This study examines NoViolet Bulawayo’s We Need New Names (2013) through the combined perspectives of trauma theory and postcolonial criticism. It investigates how migration reshapes perceptions of home, belonging, and identity, arguing that the novel presents home not as a recoverable destination but as an impossible return. The study employs a qualitative interpretive approach based on close reading and thematic textual analysis. The theoretical framework draws on Cathy Caruth’s and Dominick LaCapra’s trauma theories alongside postcolonial concepts developed by Edward Said and Homi Bhabha. The analysis focuses on four interconnected themes: trauma and displacement, memory and the construction of home, the impossibility of return, and postcolonial belonging. The findings reveal that migration in the novel functions as both a geographical and psychological experience, producing emotional fragmentation, cultural dislocation, and unstable forms of identity. Memory emerges as a crucial mechanism through which migrants maintain attachment to the homeland, yet it simultaneously transforms home into an imagined and idealized space. Consequently, return becomes increasingly unattainable as both the migrant and the homeland undergo transformation. The study concludes that Bulawayo challenges romanticized notions of homecoming by portraying belonging as a continuous process of negotiation rather than a fixed condition. By integrating trauma theory and postcolonial criticism, the study contributes to contemporary discussions of migration, displacement, memory, and identity in African postcolonial literature.