Identity Crisis of the South Asians In America

The book discusses identity crisis in two recent novels which are, Mohsin Hamids The Reluctant Fundamentalist and Jhumpa Lahiris The Namesake. It mainly presents a detailed analysis of the identity crisis that South Asian immigrants in America suffer. The book, in its first part, tries to defy the common belief that all Muslims are terrorists through drawing a cutting edge between Islamic fundamentalism and terrorism in the name of Islam. In the discussion of this part, the book scrutinizes Manuel Castells theory of identity -building and some of Edward Saids concepts in his book Orientalism, to show that Muslim immigrants in America are suffering religious identity crisis. In the second section of the book, the discussion exhibits the cultural identity crisis the Indian immigrants suffer as a result of the cultural dispute between the first and the second generation of the immigrants. In this part, the analysis employs Homi Bhabhas concept, The Third Space and Stuart Halls diaspora to show that the second generation suffers cultural trauma.

Hamza Hamdounie is an English instructor at Fahad Bin Sultan University, KSA. He received hus Bachelor degree in English Language and Literature and his Master's in English Literature and Criticism at Yarmouk University, Jordan. His research interests include postcolonial studies, cultural studies, Existentialism and western philosophy.