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Identity and Nation in Shamsie’s Kartography and Kureishi’s The Buddha of Suburbia

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Abstract

This article focuses on postcolonial Pakistan, which is divided on ethnic, economic, religious, linguistic, and political lines, and reveals the negotiations, sufferings and experiences of racism and nationalism. Through the lens of “postcolonial nationalism”, this study examines the heightened consciousness of “national identity”, quest for “belonging”, and the loss of “continuity” as depicted in Kamila Shamsie’s Kartography and Hanif Kureishi’s The Buddha of Suburbia. In the current “war on terror” scenario, many Pakistani people are failing to find security and shelter within and across border. The corrupt establishment as well as the religious and political mafias has deprived and shattered people’s belief in themselves by crushing their dreams of freedom. The Pakistani people have stood on the verge of their “promised land” only to watch how callously their beloved home is stricken by the superseding local and global powers under the guises of patriotism and nationalism. Furthermore, the severe consequences of 9/11 have generated a strong sense of alienation, insecurity, and recurrent fear in Pakistani diaspora, who have failed to assimilate in their host countries and remain in search of “home”.

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Notes

  1. Pakistan’s creation is based on the “Two Nations Theory”, which was a founding principle of the partition of India in 1947 and of the “Pakistan Movement” (i.e. the ideology of Pakistan as a Muslim nation-state in South Asia). The basic concept of the theory is that Hindu and Muslims are two different nations—their religion, culture and traditions are totally different from each other. Therefore, Muslims’ demand for a separate state is reasonable and justified.

  2. For details about these characters’ different approaches to mapping, see Mallot (2007).

  3. For details see Negotiating Identity in the Metropolis by Suresh Ranjan Bald in the book, Writing Across Worlds: Literature and Migration, Edited by Russell King, John Connell and Paul White (1995).

  4. For details see ‘“Rivers of Blood:” The Legacy of a Speech That Divided Britain’ by Samuel Earle (2018).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. School of Foreign Languages, Shanghai Jiao Tong University, 800 Dongchuan Road, Shanghai, 200240, People’s Republic of China

    Samina Akhtar, Muhammad Imran & Wei Xiaofei

  2. School of Foreign Languages, Shanghai University of Finance and Economics, 777 Guoding Road, Shanghai, 200433, People’s Republic of China

    Yuee Chen

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  1. Samina Akhtar
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  2. Muhammad Imran
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  3. Wei Xiaofei
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  4. Yuee Chen
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Correspondence to Samina Akhtar.

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Akhtar, S., Imran, M., Xiaofei, W. et al. Identity and Nation in Shamsie’s Kartography and Kureishi’s The Buddha of Suburbia. Fudan J. Hum. Soc. Sci. 14, 483–501 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1007/s40647-021-00323-9

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