Nineteenth International Conference on New Directions in the Humanities

Abstract

The present research paper examines Kamila Shamsie’s novels Burnt Shadows (2009) and Karatography (2001) to explore the representation of migration, displacement, war, identity conflicts, ethnic issues, and nationalism. Shamsie is an internationally acclaimed Pakistani woman writer who has written her novels on the themes of war and its adverse impact, cross-culturalism, multi-culturalism, gender inequality, political narratives, and human rights issues. This study highlights that her novels Burnt Shadows and Karatography demonstrate that the wars, fought on the pretext of nationalism, freedom and human rights, have made the situations worst for the global citizens. Although, her novels do not take any particular solid stand regarding the aforementioned issues, they manage to refer to the ups and downs faced by a family (her characters) due to ethnic, political, and cultural differences. This study is significant as it suggests how to solve the existing problems in the light of the lessons learnt by the past mistakes. Shamsie highlights that due to master narratives of freedom, justice, human rights. and democracy, families across cultures are facing irreparable loss. They are forced to migrate, get displaced from their roots, and had to leave their identities due to wars. This study applies postmodern theory of master-narratives as proposed by Jean Francois Lyotard in his book A Postmodern Condition (1979). For this research, textual analysis has been used as a research method to explore the selected texts. This study ends with findings and suggests recommendations for future research.