Moving through America: Race, place and resistance in Mohsin Hamid's The Reluctant Fundamentalist

Abstract

This article explores Mohsin Hamid's The Reluctant Fundamentalist in the context of debates about US multiculturalism after 9/11. It suggests that while Hamid's novel undoubtedly identifies and critiques the racism at the heart of the so‐called war on terror – expressed both in domestic and foreign arenas – his text also appears to be seduced by certain aspects of American exceptionalism. Though the novel in part paints US imperial power as heir to the European colonial legacy, I argue that The Reluctant Fundamentalist also invests in the possibility that America might represent the transcendence of racial differences.

Keywords:

• America
• race
• multiculturalism
• postcolonial
• Mohsin Hamid
• The Reluctant Fundamentalist

Notes

1. See Hamid, “It Had to be a Sign”.

2. See Haddad.

3. See Mukherjee.

4. See Harlow and Dundes; and Dawson, Lacewell, Cohen.

5. See Obama, Dreams From My Father (299–302).