Growing Up Shoeless among Djinns and Tigers: A Literary Territory Shaped by Power, Violence, and Ghosts in The Dragonfly Sea and How Much of These Hills Is Gold

Topophilia is the affective bond that people develop for place. It is a vast theme that has been explored in Humanistic Geography by the scholar Yi-Fu Tuan, in sociology, anthropology and also literature. This thesis analyses how the protagonists of The Dragonfly Sea by Yvonne Adhiambo Owuor and How Much of These Hills Is Gold by C. Pam Zhang develop an affective bond with their childhood territories. The comparative approach focuses on the ‘attachment to place’. The analysis is developed along three interacting chapters. The first examines the childhood territories as places of burial, death and colonial power. It takes into account the mythical beings and ghosts that inhabit or haunt such territories, alongside instances of colonial violence and forms of oppression. The second explores the definition of ‘wild child’, analyzed in its characteristics of shoelessness, cleanliness and external visual markers of belonging such as clothing. The third focuses on the protagonists’ coming-of-age journeys, emphasizing the role of sensorial impressions in shaping a sense of familiarity and belonging to the childhood territory. Defining the epic coming-of-age journey of the protagonists results in the identification of a ‘quiet attachment’ to place. This thesis blends studies of human geography, anthopology and literary criticism.