Post-9/11 re-orientalism

Confrontation and conciliation in Mohsin Hamid’s and Mira Nair’s The Reluctant Fundamentalist

Datos Bibliográficos

ID9003370
AutoresLisa Lau (0000-0001-7295-336X, Keele University), Ana Cristina Mendes (0000-0002-5150-6701, University of Lisbon)
Año2016
Volumen53
Número1
Páginas78-91
Fecha de publicación2016-03-09
Peer ReviewedSí
Open AccessSí
TipoARTICLE
RevistaThe Journal of Commonwealth Literature (JOURNAL)
Identificadores de la revistaISSN: 0021-9894 • E-ISSN: 1741-6442
EditorialSAGE Publishing (PUBLISHER • US)
DOI10.1177/0021989416631791
OpenAlexW2465312408
IdiomaEN
Citas recibidas4
Referencias citadas17

This article offers a comparative reading of the novel and film adaptation of The Reluctant Fundamentalist, looking at the ways these texts represent changing Western public perceptions towards Pakistan and vice-versa along the temporal axis 2001–2007–2012. Both novel and film are informed by the post-9/11 distrust of the Muslim other. Mohsin Hamid’s novel was begun before 9/11 and published seven years later, in 2007; Mira Nair’s film adaptation followed in 2012, with a premiere at the Venice Film Festival (as the opening film) and the Toronto Film Festival. Ostensibly more conciliatory than Hamid’s novel, Nair’s film adaptation attempts to build bridges, stressing the tragedy of cultural suspicion and mistrust that besets the relationships between Pakistan and the US, endeavouring to open and facilitate dialogue. Despite utilizing spaces of ambiguity to expose the dangers of binary thinking, both novel and film ultimately demonstrate that representations are still unable to escape the loop of orientalism and re-orientalism, highlighting the tension of how East and West continue as locked into this circular mode of relational identity

Aesthetics · Art · Literature · Media studies · Orientalism · Sociology · History · Philosophy · Politics and Conflicts in Afghanistan, Pakistan, and Middle East · South Asian Cinema and Culture · South Asian Studies and Diaspora