An Exploration of ‘Unhomely Moments’ in Sadegh Hedayat’s Stray Dog

By the 20th century, transnational immigration escalated sharply. This has caused a feeling of displacement among immigrants due to the oscillation between two geographical places, the native or ancestral land and the foreign land. Consequently, the concept of “home” has taken on an added importance at a time of multiple journeys for immigrants across the world. Interestingly, in some cases, the person is not dispossessed of a place to live; however, he/she does not feel at home in the “new home”. This feeling of not belonging to a particular place is described by Homi K. Bhabha as “unhomeliness”. An “estranged” sense of “unhomeliness” emerges when one lives in a place which is not his/her real home. Accordingly, Iranian Intellectuals like Sadegh Hedayat who went abroad to gain the latest knowledge, mentally absorbed Western knowledge and they could never feel at home again. Of our subject, Hedayat could never feel at home because he never succeeded in leading to a consensus between his traditional Iranian culture and the modern Westernised culture. In this respect, Hedayat’s Stray Dog, a short story written in 1943, clearly portrays this feeling of never-belonging to any home. The story narrates the life of a dog (Pat) who is caught between two worlds, his motherland and the foreign land. Finally, it is suggested that the life of this dog, an unclean animal for some Muslims, exemplifies that of Hedayat himself whereby both experienced a sense of ‘unhomeliness’.