Sixteenth International Conference on New Directions in the Humanities

Abstract

The 9/11 incident of a terrorist attack on the twin towers of the World Trade Center in New York City in 2001 has become epoch-making as political, literary, and cultural narratives and the semantics thereof are referred to as post-9/11. Ideologies, notions, perceptions, and creative and critical ventures all have been undertaken in the sway of this horrendous incident. Literarily speaking, the post-9/11 creative representations have emerged with radical narratives of nation, nationalism, racism, stereotyping, generalization, otherization, etc. adding newer dimensions to them. What has particularly been launched in the newer frames is the idea of America and Pakistan as redefined nations with their perceived reality/ies across the globe. That Muslims post 9/11 stand otherized as “terrorists” has created furor amongst the critical and creative thinkers against this perceived reality. Set in the backdrop of 9/11, Mohsin Hamid’s “The Reluctant Fundamentalist,” represents this radical change in the perception of America and Pakistan as nations of the world wherein the former reconsiders its space and stance with respect to Muslims of the world in general and those of Pakistan in particular. The novel prevails upon the act of isolating Muslims as “terrorists” with its sophisticated humor that intensifies the problematics of “otherization.” My paper examines the veracity of generalization with respect to the “otherized” identity of Muslims. The paper also looks into the choice of humor as a representational medium employed by the author to hammer out such perceptions.