RETHINKING MOHSIN HAMID'S THE RELUCTANT FUNDAMENTALIST THROUGH A TRANSNATIONAL IDENTITY: THE PROTAGONIST'S SHIFTING SENSE OF BELONGING

Yıl 2015, Cilt: 4 Sayı: 2, 116 - 122, 01.12.2015

Mustafa Demirel

Öz

A transnational approach to individual
identity has come to the fore front recently. This approach is what Mohsin
Hamid is concerned with in his novel The
Reluctant Fundamentalist, in which he presents a transnational character
displaying the Pakistani experience of migration to America. The protagonist of
the novel, Changez, has bicultural characteristics and his idea of home changes
in accordance with time and space. In the first half of his story, America is
the place where Changez feels "at home." However, there is a
particular turning point of life for him, which is the 9/11 attack to the Twin
Towers, and this experience functions as an agent of self-awareness, shifting
his sense of belonging from the host country, that is America,  to the homeland, which is Pakistan. Thus,
Changez spiritually returns to the homeland in the second half of his story.
While, prior to the 9/11 attack, 

Changez enjoys his “Americanness,” represented by the
American education, the American girl, and the American business, his shifted
identity after the event brings a consciousness of his “origin,” and in the
end, the “Pakistani Changez” overwhelms his American self. Thus, Hamid displays
how fragile and fragmented identities might become in modern times. 

Anahtar Kelimeler

transnationalism, identity, belonging, home, shift, America, Pakistan

Kaynakça

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