Art as a Space of Belonging: The Third Space of Unhomely Homecoming in Roma Tearne’s Mosquito

Abstract

This article reads Roma Tearne’s Mosquito (2007) as a novel in which physical return fails to restore a sense of belonging, and in which art becomes an alternative, hybrid space where displaced characters hold memory, loss, and present experience together. Drawing on Homi K. Bhabha’s concepts of the “unhomely” and the “Third Space,” alongside Avtar Brah’s notion of “diaspora space,” the article traces this argument through Theo Samarajeeva’s failed homecoming, Nulani Mendis’s painting practice, and the contrasting, foreclosed case of Vikram. Beyond its postcolonial critique, the article highlights how the novel intersects with linguistics and the broader humanities through its attention to the language politics of Sinhala and Tamil underlying Sri Lanka’s civil conflict. Reading Mosquito across these registers clarifies how thoroughly Tearne’s depiction of unhomely homecoming is anchored in the physical and linguistic realities of the landscape and history it represents. The study further demonstrates how fragmented identities emerge through the interaction of memory, language, place, and artistic expression. It ultimately argues that Mosquito presents belonging not as a recovered state but as an ongoing negotiation shaped by displacement and cultural difference.