ShodhPatra: International Journal of Science and Humanities

Exploring the Intersection of Hybridity and Sufism in Elif Shafak’s novel, The Forty Rules of Love

An internationally acclaimed Turkish-British writer of the contemporary period, Elif Shafak is renowned for her prolific thoughts concerning issues like identity, gender, politics and culture. Born in France, her Turkish upbringing has imparted multicultural traits to her thoughts. Her narrative style and thematic preoccupations are addressed by her transcontinental life, bridging and encapsulating both the cultures of the East and the West. Due to her active participation in contemporary social affairs, she has rightfully acquired the audacity to lend out her bold voice for those who could not. Some of her important novels are The Bastard of Istanbul (2006), The Forty Rules of Love (2009) and 10 Minutes 38 Seconds in this Strange World (2019) that frequently criticized and challenged patriarchal norms by exploring the unimaginable experiences of women in conservative and oppressive patriarchal societies. The novel taken for the current study is The Forty Rules of Love, A Sufi novel that seeks to explore the cultural interplay and the emergence of new identities created due to the cultural interactions. The novelist incorporates hybridity in the novel by blending Eastern and Western philosophies, Sufism and modernity as well as traditional and contemporary narrative styles. Both hybridity and Sufism are intertwined in a unique manner to create an affluent cultural matrix to include social, philosophical and spiritual ideas. Two parallel narratives from two different ages are juxtaposed to create a tapestry of diverse ideas. Sufism’s emphasis on love, unity and transcendence serves as the background of the novel, whereas hybridity emerges as a result of the blending of contrasting cultures. The interaction of all these elements that lead to the construction of a hybrid space is the core of the present study.