From Suburbanization to Gentrification: A Postcolonial Study of (Dis)placed Identities in Hanif Kureishi’s The Buddha of Suburbia
Abstract
This article argues Hanif Kureishi as a ‘postcolonial writer’ who emphatically rejects to be called so, although, paradoxically, his biracial foundation, plus the nature and effects of his literary works, categorizes him as a ‘postcolonial writer’. With delimitation of The Buddha Suburbia, this article traces that the postcolonial issues of ‘identity’ and ‘hybridity’ are the noticeable features of Hanif Kureishi’s literary works. This study examines how Kureishi presents the struggle of the British Asians, especially the Muslims, for cultural assimilation in the Post-colonial time of England. In this regard, this study argues the nature of the postcolonial subject’s identity concerning Homi K. Bhabha’s concept of ‘the third space’. This article focuses on how Muslim immigrants confront cultural complications in their efforts to integrate into uncompromising, class-conscious, mixed English society.
Authors
Mumtaz Ahmad
Ph.D. Scholar, Department of English, National University of Modern Languages, Islamabad, Pakistan
Qasim Shafiq
Ph.D. Scholar, Department of English, National University of Modern Languages, Islamabad, Punjab, Pakistan
Dr. Ghulam Murtaza
Associate Professor, Department of English, Government College University Faisalabad, Punjab, Pakistan