The Muslim American Encounter in Narratives of 9/11 and Its Aftermath : Mohsin Hamid's The Reluctant Fundamentalist and Ayad Akhtar's Disgraced
1004.15 KB
avoin
Julkaisu on tekijänoikeussäännösten alainen. Teosta voi lukea ja tulostaa henkilökohtaista käyttöä varten. Käyttö kaupallisiin tarkoituksiin on kielletty.
Pysyvä osoite
Verkkojulkaisu
DOI
Tiivistelmä
This thesis examines fictional narratives of contemporary Muslim American experiences applying postcolonial literary theory. A survey on the subgenre of 9/11 fiction gives further context to the two texts under analysis. The first text is the novel The Reluctant Fundamentalist (2007) by Mohsin Hamid, in which a Pakistani-born Changez has found success in New York City’s finance industry, but is disillusioned after the 9/11 attacks. Similarly, in Ayad Akhtar’s play Disgraced (2013), the successful attorney Amir descends into brutal violence after a catastrophic dinner party.
I argue that the two authors with Pakistani backgrounds engage with 9/11 discourse trough the bold perspective of two Muslim Americans who are confronted with the difficult task of negotiating their dual identities in a post-9/11 society. Stereotypes of Islam and Muslim as presented by the Western media after the 9/11 terrorist attacks are not only harmful but also dangerous in a society that is preoccupied with condemning and vilifying its ‘Other’.
Using Culture Talks as conceptualized by Mahmood Mamdani in his book Good Muslim, Bad Muslim: America, The Cold War, and the Roots of Terror, I analyse the two primary sources’ engagement with the topics of profiling, surveillance, violence, and radicalisation.