Authors:

Khushi M. Patel

Abstract:

Elif Shafak’s novel The Island of Missing Trees (2022) explores its unique narrative structure, and one of its primary narrators is the fig tree, which acts as acharacter as well as an observer of human suffering. According to the traditional narrative conventions, human narrators are at the centre of the narrative and they narrate the histories of memory, suffering and displacement. In this novel, Elif Shafak presents a non-human perspective that challenges the traditional method of storytelling. This experiment of presenting the fig tree as narrator changes our understanding of memory, trauma and exile, and it challenges anthropocentric assumptions by allowing a non-human entity to narrate the human lives andthe experiences of other living beings. The study focuses on Posthuman Narratology and Plant Studies, to examine how the fig tree in the novel functions as a memory keeper, a voice of nature and an observer of all events.

Keywords:

Elif Shafak, Fig tree, Post human narrator.

Vol & Issue:

VOL.17, ISSUE No.4, December 2025