Cultural Assimilation and Resistance in Hanif Kureishi’s The Black Album

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Cultural Assimilation and Resistance in Hanif Kureishi’s The Black Album

Journal Title: International Journal of Linguistics, Literature and Translation - Year 2019, Vol 2, Issue 2

Abstract

Hanif Kureishi’s play, The Black Album touches upon the thorny issue of Islamic fundamentalism committed by Muslim immigrants in Britain. Kureishi meticulously investigates the reactions to fanaticism and its concomitant violence among both the Westerners and the two generations of Pakistani Muslims who have immigrated to Britain. Kureishi’s speculations on postcolonial politics of identity and his renunciation of any kind of cultural, social, and religious dogmas (whether Islamic or non-Islamic) strikes a similar chord with Homi Bhabha’s enactment of fluidity of identity in both the postcolonial subjects and their Western receivers. Based on Bhabha’s concepts of hybridity, ambivalence, mimicry, and assimilation, the main character’s – Shahid – diasporic identity formation in The Black Album is studied in a dialogic relation with a group of Pakistani Islamists led by Riaz. Shahid’s resistance to violence, his zest for assimilation into the mainstream culture, alongside preserving the parts of Islam he wholeheartedly admires all contrast Riaz’ violent methods of resisting racism and capitalism inherent in the Western discourse. As Bhabha posits, engendering a hybrid and floating sense of selfhood in the immigrants paves the way for “new internationalism” that can hinder violent measures, religious fundamentalism, and normative imperatives.

Authors and Affiliations

Ali Mikaeli, Montakhabi Bakhtvar

Keywords

Immigration Resistance Hybridity Ambivalence Assimilation Mimicry New Internationalism

EP ID EP476412
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