Rethinking Identities in Contemporary Pakistani Fiction : Beyond 9/11

Kanwal, Aroosa (2015) Rethinking Identities in Contemporary Pakistani Fiction : Beyond 9/11. Palgrave Macmillan, Basingstoke, UK. ISBN 9781349502318

Abstract

Definitions of home and identity have changed for Muslims as a result of international “war on terror” rhetoric. This book uniquely links the post-9/11 stereotyping of Muslims and Islam in the West to the roots of current jihadism, the resurgence of different forms of Islam and ethnocentrism within the subcontinent and beyond, and to US realpolitik in order to foreground the effects of terrorism debates on Pakistanis at home and in the diaspora. Through close readings of fiction by Nadeem Aslam, Kamila Shamsie, Uzma Aslam Khan, Mohsin Hamid, Mohammed Hanif, H.M. Naqvi, Ali Sethi, Maha Khan Phillips and Feryal Gauhar, who confront negative attitudes towards Muslims and Islam in the twenty-first century, this book not only challenges the centrality of Western narratives but also foregrounds Anglo-American foreign policy in the Muslim world as a form of terrorism. The author proposes an articulation of a flexible identity among Muslims that is termed a “global ummah” after 9/11.