Exploring Un/homely Lives in Mohsin Hamid’s novel The Reluctant Fundamentalist

Abstract

This paper aims to explore Homi Bhabha’s concept of unhomeliness in Mohsin Hamid’s novel The Reluctant Fundamentalist (2007). An influential postcolonial theorist, Bhabha offered new perspectives on the identities of and the relation between the colonizer and the colonized and he contributed to postcolonial theories, and studies by introducing key concepts including ambivalence, mimicry, hybridity, liminality, and unhomely. This paper intends to employ Bhabha’s concept of unhomeliness to provide insight into Changez’s and Erica’s sense of identity and belonging, emotional and mental reactions and attitudes which are mostly influenced by their relation with space which generates the feeling of unhomeliness. Bhabha’s notion of unhomely has been derived from Freud’s notion of uncanny which has been translated from the German word unheimliche. Bhabha’s concept of unhomely is closely related to his concept of hybridity. According to Bhabha, there is no culture (and thus no identity) which remains pure, untouched, unaltered and uncontaminated by the foreign influence of the other cultures. This inevitable process of cultural hybridity creates the conditions of unhomeliness since no culture, nation or territory can function as a home since home is uncannily familiar and strange at the same time for individuals. Unhomeliness creates complex situations and poses challenges for Changez and Erica who feel unhomely at home or feel at home in a strange and unfamiliar context when they recognize the existence of the other in the self but fail to figure out how to handle this complexity. This paper sets out to explore Changez’s and Erica’s disturbed relations to home as they oscillate between homeliness and unhomeliness due to the return of the repressed when Pakistani and American cultures came into close contact before and after the blowback of the 9/11 terrorist attacks which destabilized the fixed boundaries.

Keywords

• Unhomeliness
• Hybridity
• Culture
• Identity
• Liminality

Exploring Un/homely Lives in Mohsin Hamid’s novel The Reluctant Fundamentalist

Abstract

Bu makale, Mohsin Hamid'in The Reluctant Fundamentalist (2007) adlı romanında Homi Bhabha'nın evsiz olma kavramını incelemeyi amaçlamaktadır. Önemli postkolonyal teorisyenlerden olan Homi Bhabha, sömürgeci ile sömürgeleştirilenin kimlikleri ve bu iki taraf arasındaki ilişkiler hakkında yeni bakış açıları sunmuş ve müphemlik, öykünme, melezlik, eşik ve evsiz olma gibi anahtar kavramları tanıtarak postkolonyal teorilere ve çalışmalara önemli katkılarda bulunmuştur. Bhabha evsiz olma kavramını, Freud'un Almanca unheimliche kavramından yola çıkarak geliştirmiştir. Bu makale, evsiz olma kavramını, romandaki Changez ve Erica adlı karakterlerin kimlik ve aidiyet duygusunu, duygusal ve zihinsel tepkilerini ve mekânlarla olan ilişkilerini evsiz olma durumunu yaratan koşullara bağlı olarak incelemeyi amaçlamaktadır. Bhabha'nın evsiz olma kavramı, melezlik kavramıyla yakından ilişkilidir. Bhabha'ya göre, saf, dokunulmamış, değiştirilmemiş ve diğer kültürlerin yabancı etkisinden etkilenmemiş hiçbir kültür (dolayısıyla kimlik) yoktur. Bu engellenemez kültürel melezlik süreci, hiçbir kültür, ulus ya da bölge sürekli ve tam olarak ev işlevi göremediği için hem evde hem de yabancı mekanda evsiz olma koşullarını yaratır çünkü ev bireyler için esrarengiz bir şekilde aynı anda hem tanıdık hem de yabancıdır. Romanda evsiz olma durumu, kendinde ötekinin varlığını fark eden, kendilerini evlerindeyken evde hissetmeyen veya garip ve tanıdık olmayan bir yerde kendilerini evlerinde hisseden fakat bu karmaşık durumla nasıl başa çıkacaklarını anlayamayan Changez ve Erica için çelişkiler ve zorluklar yaratır. Bu makale, Pakistan ve Amerikan kültürleri arasında 11 Eylül terör saldırılarının öncesinde ve sonrasında gelişen ilişkiler ağında, kültürel, tarihsel ve psikolojik olarak bastırılan duyguların geri dönüşü nedeniyle Changez ve Erica'nın evle olan tuhaf, karmaşık ve gelgitlerle dolu ilişkilerini incelemeyi amaçlamaktadır.

Keywords

• Evsizlik
• Melezlik
• Kültür
• Kimlik
• Eşik

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