Foregrounding the construction of hybrid identity after the 9/11 incident in Mohsin Hamid’s novel, The Reluctant Fundamentalist
Foregrounding the construction of hybrid identity after the 9/11 incident in Mohsin Hamid’s novel, The Reluctant Fundamentalist
Keywords:
Cultural Hybridity, Fundamentalism, Islamophobia, Orientalism.Abstract
The present research explores the Mohsin Hamid’s novel, The Reluctant Fundamentalist (2007), in the backdrop of the 9/11 incident. The research focuses on how the hybrid identity transformed after the 9/11/2001 attacks. The Reluctant Fundamentalist negotiates diverse identities resulting in the transformation of the protagonist. This novel attempts to portray the resultant multiple and conflictive identities in the post-9/11 chaotic world. The postcolonial theory featuring cultural hybridity, presented by the renowned postcolonial theorist Homi K Bhabha in his book The Location of Culture (1994), is used as a theoretical framework. The current research in the selected text reiterates disengagement for greater self-reliance and autonomy. Cultural hybridity and transitional transformation are the dominant discourses in this research, focusing on Mohsin Hamid’s The Reluctant Fundamentalist in the post-9/11 socio-political and literary milieu. In a nutshell, this research conceptualizes the philosophy of hybrid identity in The Reluctant Fundamentalist.
