Taking Place and Finding One’s Place: Unhomely Events in Mohsin Hamid’s The Reluctant Fundamentalist (2007) and Exit West (2017)
In his novels The Reluctant Fundamentalist (2007) and Exit West (2017), Pakistani writer Mohsin Hamid plunges the reader into the core of real-life events through purely fictional material. The characters through which nativist riots or post-9/11 New York are perceived have a specific viewpoint: the...
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| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
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Centre de Recherche "Texte et Critique de Texte"
2019-12-01
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| Series: | Sillages Critiques |
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| Online Access: | https://journals.openedition.org/sillagescritiques/8726 |
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| author | Maëlle Jeanniard du Dot |
| author_facet | Maëlle Jeanniard du Dot |
| author_sort | Maëlle Jeanniard du Dot |
| collection | DOAJ |
| description | In his novels The Reluctant Fundamentalist (2007) and Exit West (2017), Pakistani writer Mohsin Hamid plunges the reader into the core of real-life events through purely fictional material. The characters through which nativist riots or post-9/11 New York are perceived have a specific viewpoint: they are all migrants. Because it is a philosophical and cognitive conundrum, the event mirrors the migrant's experience of the unknown and the unfamiliar, and both the event and the experience of migration end up questioning one's place in the world, one's home, or lack thereof. This paper explores how the phrase "taking place" reflects the identity quests at stake in both novels by Mohsin Hamid. Putting home and event in perspective with, on the one hand, Sigmund Freud's Unheimlichkeit and its narrative manifestations, and, on the other hand, a geographical take on appearance, it discusses how Hamid's migrant subjects channel their multifaceted identities through global events which are at once strange and foreign. Hamid's subtle mingling of realism and fantasy offers an aesthetic vantage point from which the event can be addressed and identities can be negotiated. |
| format | Article |
| id | doaj-art-7c52de20287a45e1b0bb67c462a7e75d |
| institution | Kabale University |
| issn | 1272-3819 1969-6302 |
| language | English |
| publishDate | 2019-12-01 |
| publisher | Centre de Recherche "Texte et Critique de Texte" |
| record_format | Article |
| series | Sillages Critiques |
| spelling | doaj-art-7c52de20287a45e1b0bb67c462a7e75d2025-01-30T13:47:23ZengCentre de Recherche "Texte et Critique de Texte"Sillages Critiques1272-38191969-63022019-12-012710.4000/sillagescritiques.8726Taking Place and Finding One’s Place: Unhomely Events in Mohsin Hamid’s The Reluctant Fundamentalist (2007) and Exit West (2017)Maëlle Jeanniard du DotIn his novels The Reluctant Fundamentalist (2007) and Exit West (2017), Pakistani writer Mohsin Hamid plunges the reader into the core of real-life events through purely fictional material. The characters through which nativist riots or post-9/11 New York are perceived have a specific viewpoint: they are all migrants. Because it is a philosophical and cognitive conundrum, the event mirrors the migrant's experience of the unknown and the unfamiliar, and both the event and the experience of migration end up questioning one's place in the world, one's home, or lack thereof. This paper explores how the phrase "taking place" reflects the identity quests at stake in both novels by Mohsin Hamid. Putting home and event in perspective with, on the one hand, Sigmund Freud's Unheimlichkeit and its narrative manifestations, and, on the other hand, a geographical take on appearance, it discusses how Hamid's migrant subjects channel their multifaceted identities through global events which are at once strange and foreign. Hamid's subtle mingling of realism and fantasy offers an aesthetic vantage point from which the event can be addressed and identities can be negotiated.https://journals.openedition.org/sillagescritiques/8726spaceeventplaceMohsin Hamidmigrationuncanny |
| spellingShingle | Maëlle Jeanniard du Dot Taking Place and Finding One’s Place: Unhomely Events in Mohsin Hamid’s The Reluctant Fundamentalist (2007) and Exit West (2017) Sillages Critiques space event place Mohsin Hamid migration uncanny |
| title | Taking Place and Finding One’s Place: Unhomely Events in Mohsin Hamid’s The Reluctant Fundamentalist (2007) and Exit West (2017) |
| title_full | Taking Place and Finding One’s Place: Unhomely Events in Mohsin Hamid’s The Reluctant Fundamentalist (2007) and Exit West (2017) |
| title_fullStr | Taking Place and Finding One’s Place: Unhomely Events in Mohsin Hamid’s The Reluctant Fundamentalist (2007) and Exit West (2017) |
| title_full_unstemmed | Taking Place and Finding One’s Place: Unhomely Events in Mohsin Hamid’s The Reluctant Fundamentalist (2007) and Exit West (2017) |
| title_short | Taking Place and Finding One’s Place: Unhomely Events in Mohsin Hamid’s The Reluctant Fundamentalist (2007) and Exit West (2017) |
| title_sort | taking place and finding one s place unhomely events in mohsin hamid s the reluctant fundamentalist 2007 and exit west 2017 |
| topic | space event place Mohsin Hamid migration uncanny |
| url | https://journals.openedition.org/sillagescritiques/8726 |
| work_keys_str_mv | AT maellejeanniarddudot takingplaceandfindingonesplaceunhomelyeventsinmohsinhamidsthereluctantfundamentalist2007andexitwest2017 |