KAMILA SHAMSIE’S HOME FIRE: NEO-RACISM AND THE ‘HOUSE MUSLIM’

Year 2020, Volume: 13 Issue: 32, 1641 - 1652, 15.12.2020

Sercan Hamza Bağlama

https://doi.org/10.12981/mahder.810514

Abstract

Home Fire (2017) by Kamila Shamsie fictionally reveals the security concerns and identity crises of British Muslims through the represented experiences of its minor and major characters from a Muslim background and literalises the process in which the ‘otherised’ struggle to be recognised, acknowledged and included through the reconstitution of the ‘self’ in relation to the discursively ‘legitimate’ narratives of the mainstream ‘white’ society. In the novel, the Muslim characters who perform the requirements of a ‘proper’ Muslim image are accepted into the neo-colonial centre, while those who do not fit into the ‘proper’ Muslim image are demonised and criminalised. Considering the conditional inclusion of the ‘otherised, this article will, in this context, attempt to investigate the operation of neo-racism in postmodern capitalism and focus on the construction of acceptable otherness within the context of the discursive hegemony of orientalist epistemological formations. The article will also attempt to contribute to and develop Hamid Dabashi’s concept of the ‘house Muslim’ in order to articulate the cultural and ideological interpellation of the Muslim colonial subject into the dominant logic of the metropolitan culture.

Keywords

Home Fire, The Muslim colonial subject, neo-racism, the ‘house Muslim’, interpellation

KAMILA SHAMSIE’NİN HOME FIRE ADLI ROMANI: NEO-IRKÇILIK VE ‘EV MÜSLÜMANLARI’

Abstract

Kamila Shamsie’nin Home Fire (2017) adlı romanı Britanyalı Müslümanların güvenlik kaygılarını ve kimliksel krizlerini Müslüman kökenli minör ve majör karakterlerinin deneyimleri ve etkileşimleri aracılığıyla gözler önüne serer ve ötekileştirilenlerin ana akım ‘beyaz’ toplumun söylemsel anlamda meşru olan anlatıları çerçevesinde benliğini yeniden inşa ederek tanınma, onaylanma ve dâhil olma çabası içerisinde olduğu süreci kurgulaştırır. Romanda, ‘düzgün’ Müslüman imajının gerekliliklerini yerine getiren Müslüman karakterler neo-kolonyal merkezin bir parçası olurken, ‘düzgün’ Müslüman imajına uygun davranmayan Müslüman karakterler ise demonize ve kriminalize edilir. Ötekileştirilenlerin şartlı dâhil edilme durumu göz önünde bulundurularak, bu çalışmada postmodern kapitalist dönemde neo-ırkçılığın işleyişi incelenecek ve oryantalist epistemolojik formasyonların söylemsel hegemonyası çerçevesinde ‘kabul edilebilir ötekiliğin’ inşası üzerine odaklanılacaktır. Bu çalışmada, Müslüman kolonyal öznelerin metropolitan kültürün egemen mantık dizgelerine kültürel ve ideolojik olarak eklemlenme durumunun kavranabilmesi için, Hamid Dabashi’nin ‘ev Müslümanları’ kavramsallaştırmasına katkı sunularak bu kavramsallaştırmayı geliştirme de amaçlanmaktadır.

Keywords

Home Fire, Müslüman kolonyal özneler, neo-ırkçılık, ‘ev Müslümanları’, eklemlenme

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