‘The Book of My Mother’ as national allegory: subaltern nationalism and political unconscious in early twentieth century Azerbaijani fiction

This paper analyses Jalil Mammadquluzadeh’s drama, The Book of My Mother (Anamın Kitabı), to understand Azerbaijani nationalism in the early twentieth century. Under the repression of industrialization and colonialism, Azerbaijani national identity found its expression in literary products. Through Fredric Jameson’s concepts of national allegory and political unconscious, we examine The Book of My Mother as a fictional representation of Azerbaijani nationalism during its formative period. Ultimately, this article addresses a gap in the growing literature on Azerbaijani nationalism by applying Jamesonian critical literary theory to encourage further research in subaltern nationalism for other cases, especially within the Central Asian context.