Subversion of Islamophobia in Mohsin Hamid’s <i>The Reluctant Fundamentalist</i>and Kamila Shamsie’s <i>Home Fire</i>

Abstract

This paper aims at examining the changes in the Western narrative of Islamophobia from the end of Cold War era to the present times and its representation in contemporary Pakistani Anglophone fiction. It reads two selected Pakistani Anglophone novels, The Reluctant Fundamentalist (2007) by Mohsin Hamid and Home Fire (2017) by Kamila Shamise, against the backdrop of Stephen Greenblatt’s critique of subversion and containment. Both novels have been examined in the context of the politics of ‘war on terror’ and ‘populism’ respectively. However, the examination of the selected novels (Texts) alongside the actual political narratives (co-texts) reveals the role of anti-Muslim narratives in the development and construction of Islamophobia and, at the same time, highlights literature’s ability to offer a sight of subversion. The study also finds that the novels record the implications of Islamophobia in various forms such as racial violence, expression of religious values, discursive and physical marginalisation of Muslims living in the West as well as the immigration and citizenship issues.