Résumé:
Every individual undergoes different changes while stepping out and moving towards another
stage during the process of maturation from childhood to adulthood, mainly as the case of
Aisha, the main protagonist of the three short stories included in Ahdaf Soueif’s collection of
short stories I Think of You (2007). In the field of character study, there lies the main concern
of the Bildungsroman tradition that traces the years of formation of a protagonist from youth
to maturation. Therefore, this study aims at analyzing the years of development of Aisha’s
character and identity by stating the elements that make up a Bildungsroman according to
both Buckley and Al-Mousa’s studies. The themes include: childhood, conflict of generations,
provinciality and the larger society, a cross-cultural conflict and a spiritual crisis reaching at
the end a reconciliation of two cultures and self actualization. Furthermore, in the light of a
postcolonial view and a psychoanalytic understanding, this study makes use of both literary
theories in order to approach the cross-cultural context and the character development of
Aisha.
