The Writer as a Nomad and the Narrative as a War Machine: A Critical Reading of The Pianist of Yarmouk

This paper aims to critically analyze Aeham Ahmed's memoir titled, The Pianist of Yarmouk through the theoretical framework of Nomadic Philosophy proposed by Gilles Deleuze and Felix Guattari. Ahem Ahmed is a musician who hails from Syria and currently resides in Germany. He fled from Syria to escape the civil war and now gives concerts all over Europe. In his introduction to the memoir he says he want to dispel some of the fears surrounding the refugees in Europe. This statement itself shows that how he aims to represent the collective consciousness and voice of the refugees who are often denied their identity and are treated as faceless masses in the host countries. Deleuze and Guattari argue that the nomad has a tendency towards deterritorialization and it can be found to some degree in all phenomena. This paper aims to argue that refugee writers exhibit nomadic thought. The major questions addressed here are; a) How the writer acts as a nomadic figure throughout the narrative and how the narrative functions as a war machine against the state apparatus. b) How far the writer as a nomad can create a counter narrative; and question the mainstream power structures across globe which functions by the formation of nation states and strict border politics. c) To what extent the narrative can prove that the modern refugee is the opposite of modern citizen and it is an inevitable requirement of the current state of global politics.