In this essay I compare Moshin Hamid’s novel "The Reluctant Fundamentalist" to Western post 9/11 works of fiction, such as "Terrorist" by John Updike and "The Unknown Terrorist" by Richard Flanagan. It is my aim to stress the intrinsic South Asian nature of Hamid’s novel, by showing how a very similar theme (the growth of violent fundamentalism among young people, on the one hand, and the fear of the Islamic Other, seen as a potential terrorist in the Western World, on the other) is dealt with in two novels written respectively by a Pakistani author (Hamid) and a North American one (Updike). Then, I will weigh both novels against Flanagan’s work, which stigmatises the role played by the media in the creation of a “terrorist craze”. Besides critical appreciations and literary reviews, to analyse "The Reluctant Fundamentalist" in the light of post 9/11 “politics of security”, I use texts by Paul Gilroy ("Postcolonial Melancholia"); Judith Butler ("Precarious Life. The Powers of Mourning and Violence"); Slavoj Žižek ("Welcome in the Desert of the Real"); and Arjun Appadurai (“Globalization and Violence”, “Dead Certainty”, “The Civilization of Clashes”, “Our Terrorists, Ourselves”).
Sous les Yeux de l'Orient: les conséquences du 11-Septembre dans a fiction postcoloniale récente
ALBERTAZZI, SILVIA
2013
Abstract
In this essay I compare Moshin Hamid’s novel "The Reluctant Fundamentalist" to Western post 9/11 works of fiction, such as "Terrorist" by John Updike and "The Unknown Terrorist" by Richard Flanagan. It is my aim to stress the intrinsic South Asian nature of Hamid’s novel, by showing how a very similar theme (the growth of violent fundamentalism among young people, on the one hand, and the fear of the Islamic Other, seen as a potential terrorist in the Western World, on the other) is dealt with in two novels written respectively by a Pakistani author (Hamid) and a North American one (Updike). Then, I will weigh both novels against Flanagan’s work, which stigmatises the role played by the media in the creation of a “terrorist craze”. Besides critical appreciations and literary reviews, to analyse "The Reluctant Fundamentalist" in the light of post 9/11 “politics of security”, I use texts by Paul Gilroy ("Postcolonial Melancholia"); Judith Butler ("Precarious Life. The Powers of Mourning and Violence"); Slavoj Žižek ("Welcome in the Desert of the Real"); and Arjun Appadurai (“Globalization and Violence”, “Dead Certainty”, “The Civilization of Clashes”, “Our Terrorists, Ourselves”).I documenti in IRIS sono protetti da copyright e tutti i diritti sono riservati, salvo diversa indicazione.