In: New Literatures in the Context of Post-Colonialism, Postmodernism and the Present. - Prešov: Prešovská univerzita, 2007. - ISBN 978-80-8068-680-2. - S. 117-123.
Simona Hevešiová
Abstract:
The article discusses the problem of identity and the importance of articulateness in the context of postcolonial fiction, focusing primarily on its manifestation within the narrative. It points to the fact that the majority of postcolonial works move away from the unified and centered narrative voice and rather incorporate a polyphony of voices which corresponds with the fragmentation of the postcolonial Subject. In Hanif Kureishi’s novel The Buddha of Suburbia, the fragmented and polyphonic Self is displayed through several modes of articulateness – the storytelling, theatre practice, employment of diverse registers and the proliferation of false / imitation selves.
Key words:
articulateness, polyphony, fragmentation, hybridity, identity, narrative strategy, imitation
The search for one’s identity and the process of its (re)construction represent some of the most frequent discourses in postcolonial writing. Due to the distorted and deliberately perverted portrayals of the colonized peoples in the works of colonial authors which have, to certain extent, shaped the consciousness of the affected population, postcolonial writers tend to respond with compelling narratives of their own displaying the consequential influence of colonialism on one’s self-concept. The manifestation of identity within these narratives reflects the urgent need of the postcolonial community to tell their stories which would capture the past from an alternative perspective, often revealing the struggle of the self for its own mode of articulation. And precisely the process of articulating one’s identity or experience stands in the foreground of numerous postcolonial works and is exteriorized in the variety of different narrative strategies.
In words of Amy Ling, “finding one’s voice and telling one’s stories represents power, just as having one’s stories burried is powerlessness.” (1999, p. 157). Juxtaposing writing to the basic instinct of human beings, Ling implicitly stresses and elevates the importance of storytelling and its meaning for oneself. She says that “writing is an act of self-assertion, self-revelation, and self-preservation. One writes out of a delight in one’s storytelling powers, out of a need to reveal and explain oneself, or from the desire to record and preserve experience”. (Ibid., p. 135) In the context of the postcolonial condition, these statements take on a new, much more significant dimension. Indeed, the textual form provides an intact space for the presentation of the self, for revealing and promoting an alternative record of the process of identity formation. Words call forth emotions and thus the self is given a remarkable opportunity to be displayed in its complexity and multiplicity.
However, the literary form of such a disclosure of the self-searching process has altered together with the changing circumstances. The twentieth century brought about numerous debates about the history and essence of identity projecting constantly changing and redefined concepts of the self. Since it has been scrutinized within a variety of disciplinary areas, e.g. from psychoanalytical, social constructionist and ideological perspectives but also in terms of its representation in the literary form through the views of essentialists or structuralists, Madan Sarup marked the “widespread, pervasive fascination with identity” as a “symptom of postmodernity” (1996, p. 28) and it may also be added, as a symptom of postcolonialism.
Simply stated, the postmodern / postcolonial world is a world of dynamism that leads to the reconstitution of the self which no longer possesses stability and fixedness. Instead, contradiction, inconsistency and hybridization take their place. In consequence, identity becomes a multi-dimensional space in which both psychological and sociological aspects have to be taken into consideration, giving rise to a relational self. Thus, identity becomes a “mediating concept between the external and the internal, the individual and society […]” (Ibid., p. 28), adjusting the self-definition to the changing relationships with others. Certainly, there are numerous examples of literary characters who negotiate their own identity through the inevitable contact with both the members of the postcolonial community and the Western society. Thus, an intercultural dialogue is established forcing both of the parties to reconsider their mutual relationship.
Put another way, the self was exposed to a crucial and dramatic transformation. The (re)evolution of the self contributed to the alteration of its essential characteristics as the homogeneous and unified to the transitory and polysemic. Thus, the idea of a coherent, centered and integrated self disappeared and was replaced by its flexible, fragmented and ambiguous counterpart. The traditional view stressing the significance of a fixed and stable identity was undermined by a new concept regarding identity as “fabricated, constructed, in process.” (Ibid., p. 14) Indeed, in many postcolonial works the unified and coherent narrative voice suddenly disappears and is substituted by a multitude of seemingly dissonant voices which represent an attempt to put together a mosaic of stories in order to recreate the personal chronicles of global narratives.
The proliferation of polyphonic novels during the twentieth century also demonstrates the split of the self which no longer possesses stability and fixedness. In order to reconcile with the colonial past and the multicultural reality of the present, authors like Caryl Phillips or Zadie Smith attempt to engage both communities in a meaningful dialogue. In doing so, they make use of several viewpoints, i.e. narrative voices which help to create a fragmented, collage-like portrait of their characters’ hybridization. Sometimes the polyphony results in a tangible fragmentation of the text, like in the case of Phillips’s novels, the other times it is manifested on the thematic level. The British writer Hanif Kureishi also joins this orchestra, however, by employing much more subtle forms of both the polyphony and fragmentation. In his novel The Buddha of Suburbia these devices are rendered invisible at the first sight but are undoubtedly present.
The book recounts the details of Karim Amir’s teenage adventures in the suburban London of the 1970s. Karim, who is not only the protagonist but also the narrator of the novel, introduces himself as “a funny kind of Englishman, a new breed as it were, having emerged from two old histories” (Kureishi, 1990, p. 3). From this moment on, a careful reader discerns the diffusing powers behind the narrative that both connect and disengage Karim and the other characters on their voyage through the British post-imperial reality. There are copious reverberant voices behind Karim’s seemingly unified and homogeneous voice bringing about an unusual form of fragmentation. It manifests itself not only in the variety of episodes Karim interweaves into his narrative but also in the novel’s carnevalesque character.
In other words, the book is centered not only around a single character, the narrator himself as we might expect, but it also provides a glimpse into the realities of life of several other people. Encapsulating various episodes from the lives of his relatives and friends, Karim presents a compendium of distinctive stories which alleviate his own identity-search process. Each story that the narrator presents is an effort to enhance the necessity of articulating one’s struggle for self-revelation and facilitates the characters’ quest for resonant voices. Step by step, Karim permeates his life-story with the stories of his father Haroon and his dysfunctional family, of his best friend Anwar with a rebellious daughter Jamila and her India-imported husband Changez, then Charlie who happens to be the object of Karim’s affection and several theatre actors whom he cooperates with. By juxtaposing miscellaneous episodes from the lives of Karim’s acquaintances, Kureishi succeeded in creating a collage of the British multicultural environment. In fact, taking into account Karim’s sarcastic comments, one might also label these portrayals as caricatures.
First of all, there is Karim and his constant discontentment with his life. Growing up in the suburbs of London (that is to say the periphery), Karim feels himself isolated from London (the center) with its endless opportunities for adventures. He struggles not only with his family (especially his India-born father who decides to leave his English wife) but also with his sexuality and ambitions at the same time. To a large extent, the story of his life is a combination of confusion, ambiguity and indecisiveness. However, the process of growing-up and his so called pilgrimage to London and America later on transform Karim into a self-aware, composed young man.
It seems to be precisely Karim’s episodical verbalization of the events in his life and life of his relatives or acquaintances that provides his narrative with certain framework. By depicting more or less bizarre events from their lives, juxtaposing various life-styles and philosophies, Karim creates a collage of stories which, in consequence, produce the final portrayal of multicultural Britain and its race relations in the 1970s. However, beyond the seemingly homogeneous narrative voice, there is an incontestable trace of fragmentation. Karim’s satirical commentaries which range from sophisticated, intelligent remarks to swearwords and vulgarisms, demonstrate his own identity crisis. Moreover, his own confusion results in the proliferation of fragmented selves which he transfers to his relatives and friends by referring to them in number of various names. Thus, his father Haroon Amir is introduced not only as an Indian immigrant, but also as Harry, God, Daddio or the Buddha of Suburbia depending on Karim’s point of view. Similarly, his friend Jamila is referred to as Jammie or Princess, her husband Changez both as the Bubble and Dildo Killer or the theatre producer Shadwell appears as Shitwell.
Furthermore, Kureishi succeeded in employing another mode of articulateness and of subsequent fragmentation into the narrative. Throughout the story Karim yearns for self-realization and he finally finds himself in the world of theatre.
“Until this moment I’d felt incapable of operating effectively in the world; I didn’t know how to do it; events tossed me about. Now I was beginning to see that it didn’t necessarily have to be that way. My happiness and progress and education could depend on my own activity – as long as it was the right activity at the right time.” (Ibid., p. 155)
Thus, besides its verbal manifestation embodied in his storytelling powers, Karim’s quest for articulateness acquires a new medium for its presentation. Paradoxically, the theatre represents a devious instrument since the original enthusiasm is soon supplanted by unexpected consequences. Karim is cast into an experimental piece of drama which is an adaptation of Kipling’s Jungle Book. Later on he finds out that he was cast “for authenticity and not for experience” (Kureishi, 1990, p. 147) and part of his task is to learn how to feel “comfortable as a Bengali” (Ibid.) Thus, in words of Cynthia Carey, “the protagonist-narrator’s own quest [...] is presented as a personal struggle with his many false, imposed or imitation selves.” (p. 121, 25.10. 2006). Indeed, on one hand the theatre gratifies Karim’s penchant for imitation and exhibitionism and Carey marks the use of theatre and acting as one of the main leitmotives of the novel (Ibid.). On the other hand, Karim is suddenly forced to negotiate his identity not only between the former binaries but he must consider the triple element (his false identity) as well.
Ironically, while Karim becomes part of the center, he is compelled to present himself only as an exotic caricature of himself. Despite his ignorant stance towards his ethnicity and his multicultural, creole background, Karim fails to recognize the ridiculousness of his own situation. His exotic looks are presented as an interesting, sought-after commodity which the West longs for in order to break loose from the quotidian greyness of their reality. However, with his impersonations of ethnic characters, Karim contributes to the dissemination of false and distorted conceptions of ethnic minorities. One of his co-workers confronts him with a passionate comment which he is not able to understand:
“Your picture is what white people already think of us. That we’re funny, with strange habits and weird customs. To the white man we’re already people without humanity, and then you go and have Anwar madly waving his stick at the white boys. I can’t believe that anything like this could happen. You show us as unorganized aggressors. Why do you hate yourself and all black people so much, Karim?” (Kureishi, 1990, p. 180)
Indeed, through Karim’s caricatures of ethnic communities, Kureishi “highlight[s] the problem of colonized false identities, of longing for borrowed selves in a post-colonial context when recovering a dignified and authentic identity requires a constant battle with wrong perceptions, racial clichés and imitated behaviour” (Carey, p. 121, 25.10. 2006). The reason why Karim fails to recognize this may be rooted in his ignorance of his ethnic background or his lack of awareness of his own ethnicity. Karim instinctively distances himself from the immigrant community since he does not perceive himself as its member, nor identifies himself as a displaced subject. The split of his personality is rather unconscious in his case. Only later Karim realizes that he feels certain togetherness with his people.
“But I did feel, looking at these strange creatures now – the Indians – that in some way these were my people, and that I’d spent my life denying or avoiding that fact. I felt ashamed and incomplete at the same time, as if half of me were missing, and as if I’d been colluding with my enemies, those whites who wanted Indians to be like them.” (Kureishi, 1990, p. 212)
When analyzing the father-son relationship in the novel, one can clearly see that part of Karim’s identity problem stems from his father’s ephemeral sense of belonging. Haroon, the novel’s namesake, floats between his Indianness and his British identity and constantly changes his preferences. In words of Berthold Schoene, “[f]orced 20 years previously to mimic stereotypical Englishness in order make a living in Britain, he now prospects on what he can retrieve of his Indian past, conflating it with Eva and her friends’ spurious conception of Indianness” (1998, p. 116). In fact, Haroon decides to occupy the profitable space in-between. He abandons the identity of the former Indian Other only to reposition himself to the Indian territory again which he in turn substitutes for a neutral Orientalism. Indeed, Haroon is neither Western nor Indian and Karim describes him as “a renegade Muslim masquerading as a Buddhist” (Kureishi, 1990, p. 16). Again, the employed device of imitation points to Haroon’s fragmented identity which keeps masking his authentic self behind Buddhist teaching and shallow spiritual seances.
Similarly, both Karim and Haroon sell their ethnicity as a market commodity satisfying the consumer’s need for otherness and exoticism. Nevertheless, while Karim’s lack of awareness and his ignorance towards his ethnicity make him a mere victim in this multi-culti business, Haroon’s motivation is rather ambiguous. Certainly, he seems to find no gratification in his boring clerk job which he later abandons in order to become a suburban guru providing a small bunch of outlandish neighbours with dubitable solace. His following statement, however, casts certain suspicion over his incentives.
“I have lived in the West for most of my life, and I will die here, yet I remain to all intents and purposes an Indian man. I will never be anything but an Indian.” (Ibid., p. 263)
As it was already mentioned, Haroon experiments with his ethnicity to such an extent that he anything except an Indian. In order to find a respectable place within the dominant social circle, he does not hesitate to recklessly abandon his Indianness for a flimsy and unsubstantial mixture of Buddhism and charlatanism. Haroon’s hybridization seems to be both inevitable (as a result of the postcolonial displacement) and elected by himself. Consequently, Haroon’s longing for authenticity is replaced by a fake concept of his cultural heritage.
To conclude, Hanif Kureishi succeeded in manifesting the hybridity and identity confusion of the postcolonial community by using subtle literary and thematic devices. The protagonists’ quest for articulateness is displayed on several different levels, all of which contribute to the novel’s fragmentation. First and foremost, it is the narrative strategy itself which is highly episodical and collage-like that provides the narrative with an ultimate sense of ambivalence. The characters’ identity crisis is also reflected in the diverse register of styles and diction together with the proliferation of various false and imposed selves. Moreover, the urgent need for articulation is also demonstrated through the characters’ longing for self-authenticity. Thus, the fragmented postcolonial subject is reflected not only in the narrative level but also in the usage of the theatre and imitation devices. In fact, Kureishi sets the mirror to the perverted images of post/colonial identities by creating them himself. However, one has to realize that behind these desperate attempts to gain attention and by the same token self-esteem as well, there is an unmistakable longing for self-assertion and articulateness. In a world where the postcolonial community still has to face the colonial anachronisms on a daily basis, one cannot remain silent and relinquish to the power of the majority.
Bibliography:
CAREY, C. Hanif Kureishi’s The Buddha of Suburbia as a Post-Colonial Novel. www.csupomona.edu/~delashgari/450/TboS_as_PC_novel.pdf, pp. 119 – 125, 25.10. 2006, Available on Internet.
DOYLE, W. The Space between Identity and Otherness in Hanif Kureishi’s The Buddha of Suburbia. www.csupomona.edu/~delashgari`/450/the_space_between.pdf, pp. 110 – 118, 25.10. 2006. Available on Internet.
KUREISHI, H., 1990. The Buddha of Suburbia. London: Faber and Faber.
LING, A., 1999. Chinese American Women Writers. The tradition behind Maxine Hong Kingston. In: Wong, S.C. (ed.). Maxine Hong Kingston’s The Woman Warrior. A Casebook. Oxford: Oxford University Press. pp. 135-158.
SARUP, M., 1996. Identity, Culture and the Postmodern World. Georgia: University of Georgia Press.
SCHOENE, B., 1998. Herald of Hybridity. The emancipation of difference in Hanif Kureishi’s The Buddha of Suburbia. In: International Journal of Cultural Studies, Vol. 1. London: SAGE Publications, pp. 109 – 128.
SLEPOY, G.M. The Legitimising of His/Her-stories in Hanif Kureishi’s The Buddha of Suburbia. www.scholars.nus.edu.sg/post/uk/kureishi/gms5.html, 25.10. 2006, Available on Internet.
Simona Hevešiová
Abstract:
The article discusses the problem of identity and the importance of articulateness in the context of postcolonial fiction, focusing primarily on its manifestation within the narrative. It points to the fact that the majority of postcolonial works move away from the unified and centered narrative voice and rather incorporate a polyphony of voices which corresponds with the fragmentation of the postcolonial Subject. In Hanif Kureishi’s novel The Buddha of Suburbia, the fragmented and polyphonic Self is displayed through several modes of articulateness – the storytelling, theatre practice, employment of diverse registers and the proliferation of false / imitation selves.
Key words:
articulateness, polyphony, fragmentation, hybridity, identity, narrative strategy, imitation
The search for one’s identity and the process of its (re)construction represent some of the most frequent discourses in postcolonial writing. Due to the distorted and deliberately perverted portrayals of the colonized peoples in the works of colonial authors which have, to certain extent, shaped the consciousness of the affected population, postcolonial writers tend to respond with compelling narratives of their own displaying the consequential influence of colonialism on one’s self-concept. The manifestation of identity within these narratives reflects the urgent need of the postcolonial community to tell their stories which would capture the past from an alternative perspective, often revealing the struggle of the self for its own mode of articulation. And precisely the process of articulating one’s identity or experience stands in the foreground of numerous postcolonial works and is exteriorized in the variety of different narrative strategies.
In words of Amy Ling, “finding one’s voice and telling one’s stories represents power, just as having one’s stories burried is powerlessness.” (1999, p. 157). Juxtaposing writing to the basic instinct of human beings, Ling implicitly stresses and elevates the importance of storytelling and its meaning for oneself. She says that “writing is an act of self-assertion, self-revelation, and self-preservation. One writes out of a delight in one’s storytelling powers, out of a need to reveal and explain oneself, or from the desire to record and preserve experience”. (Ibid., p. 135) In the context of the postcolonial condition, these statements take on a new, much more significant dimension. Indeed, the textual form provides an intact space for the presentation of the self, for revealing and promoting an alternative record of the process of identity formation. Words call forth emotions and thus the self is given a remarkable opportunity to be displayed in its complexity and multiplicity.
However, the literary form of such a disclosure of the self-searching process has altered together with the changing circumstances. The twentieth century brought about numerous debates about the history and essence of identity projecting constantly changing and redefined concepts of the self. Since it has been scrutinized within a variety of disciplinary areas, e.g. from psychoanalytical, social constructionist and ideological perspectives but also in terms of its representation in the literary form through the views of essentialists or structuralists, Madan Sarup marked the “widespread, pervasive fascination with identity” as a “symptom of postmodernity” (1996, p. 28) and it may also be added, as a symptom of postcolonialism.
Simply stated, the postmodern / postcolonial world is a world of dynamism that leads to the reconstitution of the self which no longer possesses stability and fixedness. Instead, contradiction, inconsistency and hybridization take their place. In consequence, identity becomes a multi-dimensional space in which both psychological and sociological aspects have to be taken into consideration, giving rise to a relational self. Thus, identity becomes a “mediating concept between the external and the internal, the individual and society […]” (Ibid., p. 28), adjusting the self-definition to the changing relationships with others. Certainly, there are numerous examples of literary characters who negotiate their own identity through the inevitable contact with both the members of the postcolonial community and the Western society. Thus, an intercultural dialogue is established forcing both of the parties to reconsider their mutual relationship.
Put another way, the self was exposed to a crucial and dramatic transformation. The (re)evolution of the self contributed to the alteration of its essential characteristics as the homogeneous and unified to the transitory and polysemic. Thus, the idea of a coherent, centered and integrated self disappeared and was replaced by its flexible, fragmented and ambiguous counterpart. The traditional view stressing the significance of a fixed and stable identity was undermined by a new concept regarding identity as “fabricated, constructed, in process.” (Ibid., p. 14) Indeed, in many postcolonial works the unified and coherent narrative voice suddenly disappears and is substituted by a multitude of seemingly dissonant voices which represent an attempt to put together a mosaic of stories in order to recreate the personal chronicles of global narratives.
The proliferation of polyphonic novels during the twentieth century also demonstrates the split of the self which no longer possesses stability and fixedness. In order to reconcile with the colonial past and the multicultural reality of the present, authors like Caryl Phillips or Zadie Smith attempt to engage both communities in a meaningful dialogue. In doing so, they make use of several viewpoints, i.e. narrative voices which help to create a fragmented, collage-like portrait of their characters’ hybridization. Sometimes the polyphony results in a tangible fragmentation of the text, like in the case of Phillips’s novels, the other times it is manifested on the thematic level. The British writer Hanif Kureishi also joins this orchestra, however, by employing much more subtle forms of both the polyphony and fragmentation. In his novel The Buddha of Suburbia these devices are rendered invisible at the first sight but are undoubtedly present.
The book recounts the details of Karim Amir’s teenage adventures in the suburban London of the 1970s. Karim, who is not only the protagonist but also the narrator of the novel, introduces himself as “a funny kind of Englishman, a new breed as it were, having emerged from two old histories” (Kureishi, 1990, p. 3). From this moment on, a careful reader discerns the diffusing powers behind the narrative that both connect and disengage Karim and the other characters on their voyage through the British post-imperial reality. There are copious reverberant voices behind Karim’s seemingly unified and homogeneous voice bringing about an unusual form of fragmentation. It manifests itself not only in the variety of episodes Karim interweaves into his narrative but also in the novel’s carnevalesque character.
In other words, the book is centered not only around a single character, the narrator himself as we might expect, but it also provides a glimpse into the realities of life of several other people. Encapsulating various episodes from the lives of his relatives and friends, Karim presents a compendium of distinctive stories which alleviate his own identity-search process. Each story that the narrator presents is an effort to enhance the necessity of articulating one’s struggle for self-revelation and facilitates the characters’ quest for resonant voices. Step by step, Karim permeates his life-story with the stories of his father Haroon and his dysfunctional family, of his best friend Anwar with a rebellious daughter Jamila and her India-imported husband Changez, then Charlie who happens to be the object of Karim’s affection and several theatre actors whom he cooperates with. By juxtaposing miscellaneous episodes from the lives of Karim’s acquaintances, Kureishi succeeded in creating a collage of the British multicultural environment. In fact, taking into account Karim’s sarcastic comments, one might also label these portrayals as caricatures.
First of all, there is Karim and his constant discontentment with his life. Growing up in the suburbs of London (that is to say the periphery), Karim feels himself isolated from London (the center) with its endless opportunities for adventures. He struggles not only with his family (especially his India-born father who decides to leave his English wife) but also with his sexuality and ambitions at the same time. To a large extent, the story of his life is a combination of confusion, ambiguity and indecisiveness. However, the process of growing-up and his so called pilgrimage to London and America later on transform Karim into a self-aware, composed young man.
It seems to be precisely Karim’s episodical verbalization of the events in his life and life of his relatives or acquaintances that provides his narrative with certain framework. By depicting more or less bizarre events from their lives, juxtaposing various life-styles and philosophies, Karim creates a collage of stories which, in consequence, produce the final portrayal of multicultural Britain and its race relations in the 1970s. However, beyond the seemingly homogeneous narrative voice, there is an incontestable trace of fragmentation. Karim’s satirical commentaries which range from sophisticated, intelligent remarks to swearwords and vulgarisms, demonstrate his own identity crisis. Moreover, his own confusion results in the proliferation of fragmented selves which he transfers to his relatives and friends by referring to them in number of various names. Thus, his father Haroon Amir is introduced not only as an Indian immigrant, but also as Harry, God, Daddio or the Buddha of Suburbia depending on Karim’s point of view. Similarly, his friend Jamila is referred to as Jammie or Princess, her husband Changez both as the Bubble and Dildo Killer or the theatre producer Shadwell appears as Shitwell.
Furthermore, Kureishi succeeded in employing another mode of articulateness and of subsequent fragmentation into the narrative. Throughout the story Karim yearns for self-realization and he finally finds himself in the world of theatre.
“Until this moment I’d felt incapable of operating effectively in the world; I didn’t know how to do it; events tossed me about. Now I was beginning to see that it didn’t necessarily have to be that way. My happiness and progress and education could depend on my own activity – as long as it was the right activity at the right time.” (Ibid., p. 155)
Thus, besides its verbal manifestation embodied in his storytelling powers, Karim’s quest for articulateness acquires a new medium for its presentation. Paradoxically, the theatre represents a devious instrument since the original enthusiasm is soon supplanted by unexpected consequences. Karim is cast into an experimental piece of drama which is an adaptation of Kipling’s Jungle Book. Later on he finds out that he was cast “for authenticity and not for experience” (Kureishi, 1990, p. 147) and part of his task is to learn how to feel “comfortable as a Bengali” (Ibid.) Thus, in words of Cynthia Carey, “the protagonist-narrator’s own quest [...] is presented as a personal struggle with his many false, imposed or imitation selves.” (p. 121, 25.10. 2006). Indeed, on one hand the theatre gratifies Karim’s penchant for imitation and exhibitionism and Carey marks the use of theatre and acting as one of the main leitmotives of the novel (Ibid.). On the other hand, Karim is suddenly forced to negotiate his identity not only between the former binaries but he must consider the triple element (his false identity) as well.
Ironically, while Karim becomes part of the center, he is compelled to present himself only as an exotic caricature of himself. Despite his ignorant stance towards his ethnicity and his multicultural, creole background, Karim fails to recognize the ridiculousness of his own situation. His exotic looks are presented as an interesting, sought-after commodity which the West longs for in order to break loose from the quotidian greyness of their reality. However, with his impersonations of ethnic characters, Karim contributes to the dissemination of false and distorted conceptions of ethnic minorities. One of his co-workers confronts him with a passionate comment which he is not able to understand:
“Your picture is what white people already think of us. That we’re funny, with strange habits and weird customs. To the white man we’re already people without humanity, and then you go and have Anwar madly waving his stick at the white boys. I can’t believe that anything like this could happen. You show us as unorganized aggressors. Why do you hate yourself and all black people so much, Karim?” (Kureishi, 1990, p. 180)
Indeed, through Karim’s caricatures of ethnic communities, Kureishi “highlight[s] the problem of colonized false identities, of longing for borrowed selves in a post-colonial context when recovering a dignified and authentic identity requires a constant battle with wrong perceptions, racial clichés and imitated behaviour” (Carey, p. 121, 25.10. 2006). The reason why Karim fails to recognize this may be rooted in his ignorance of his ethnic background or his lack of awareness of his own ethnicity. Karim instinctively distances himself from the immigrant community since he does not perceive himself as its member, nor identifies himself as a displaced subject. The split of his personality is rather unconscious in his case. Only later Karim realizes that he feels certain togetherness with his people.
“But I did feel, looking at these strange creatures now – the Indians – that in some way these were my people, and that I’d spent my life denying or avoiding that fact. I felt ashamed and incomplete at the same time, as if half of me were missing, and as if I’d been colluding with my enemies, those whites who wanted Indians to be like them.” (Kureishi, 1990, p. 212)
When analyzing the father-son relationship in the novel, one can clearly see that part of Karim’s identity problem stems from his father’s ephemeral sense of belonging. Haroon, the novel’s namesake, floats between his Indianness and his British identity and constantly changes his preferences. In words of Berthold Schoene, “[f]orced 20 years previously to mimic stereotypical Englishness in order make a living in Britain, he now prospects on what he can retrieve of his Indian past, conflating it with Eva and her friends’ spurious conception of Indianness” (1998, p. 116). In fact, Haroon decides to occupy the profitable space in-between. He abandons the identity of the former Indian Other only to reposition himself to the Indian territory again which he in turn substitutes for a neutral Orientalism. Indeed, Haroon is neither Western nor Indian and Karim describes him as “a renegade Muslim masquerading as a Buddhist” (Kureishi, 1990, p. 16). Again, the employed device of imitation points to Haroon’s fragmented identity which keeps masking his authentic self behind Buddhist teaching and shallow spiritual seances.
Similarly, both Karim and Haroon sell their ethnicity as a market commodity satisfying the consumer’s need for otherness and exoticism. Nevertheless, while Karim’s lack of awareness and his ignorance towards his ethnicity make him a mere victim in this multi-culti business, Haroon’s motivation is rather ambiguous. Certainly, he seems to find no gratification in his boring clerk job which he later abandons in order to become a suburban guru providing a small bunch of outlandish neighbours with dubitable solace. His following statement, however, casts certain suspicion over his incentives.
“I have lived in the West for most of my life, and I will die here, yet I remain to all intents and purposes an Indian man. I will never be anything but an Indian.” (Ibid., p. 263)
As it was already mentioned, Haroon experiments with his ethnicity to such an extent that he anything except an Indian. In order to find a respectable place within the dominant social circle, he does not hesitate to recklessly abandon his Indianness for a flimsy and unsubstantial mixture of Buddhism and charlatanism. Haroon’s hybridization seems to be both inevitable (as a result of the postcolonial displacement) and elected by himself. Consequently, Haroon’s longing for authenticity is replaced by a fake concept of his cultural heritage.
To conclude, Hanif Kureishi succeeded in manifesting the hybridity and identity confusion of the postcolonial community by using subtle literary and thematic devices. The protagonists’ quest for articulateness is displayed on several different levels, all of which contribute to the novel’s fragmentation. First and foremost, it is the narrative strategy itself which is highly episodical and collage-like that provides the narrative with an ultimate sense of ambivalence. The characters’ identity crisis is also reflected in the diverse register of styles and diction together with the proliferation of various false and imposed selves. Moreover, the urgent need for articulation is also demonstrated through the characters’ longing for self-authenticity. Thus, the fragmented postcolonial subject is reflected not only in the narrative level but also in the usage of the theatre and imitation devices. In fact, Kureishi sets the mirror to the perverted images of post/colonial identities by creating them himself. However, one has to realize that behind these desperate attempts to gain attention and by the same token self-esteem as well, there is an unmistakable longing for self-assertion and articulateness. In a world where the postcolonial community still has to face the colonial anachronisms on a daily basis, one cannot remain silent and relinquish to the power of the majority.
Bibliography:
CAREY, C. Hanif Kureishi’s The Buddha of Suburbia as a Post-Colonial Novel. www.csupomona.edu/~delashgari/450/TboS_as_PC_novel.pdf, pp. 119 – 125, 25.10. 2006, Available on Internet.
DOYLE, W. The Space between Identity and Otherness in Hanif Kureishi’s The Buddha of Suburbia. www.csupomona.edu/~delashgari`/450/the_space_between.pdf, pp. 110 – 118, 25.10. 2006. Available on Internet.
KUREISHI, H., 1990. The Buddha of Suburbia. London: Faber and Faber.
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