Exploration of Re-Oriental Tendencies in Shamsie’s Burnt Shadows and Home Fire: Re-Orientalization of the Orient

Mamona Yasmin Khan, Umme Farwa

Abstract

Re-orientalization of the modern orient has become a new phenomenon in South Asian Literature. This research tended to analyze the re-oriental tendencies in Shamsie’s critically acclaimed novels Burnt Shadows and Home Fire. Lau’s (2009) framework of Re-Orientalism was selected for the analysis along with the basic concepts of Said’s (1979) Orientalism. Within this framework, the researcher selected ten random samples from both novels for textual analysis. The analysis reveals that the modern orient encounters more hate and prejudice in the host country for being an orient and a diaspora Muslim. The new orient has been labeled as a terrorist under the concept of Islamophobia. This representation, interestingly, was not given by the Occident but by the postcolonial writer itself. Post-9/11 fiction highlights the settling issues of the modern orients significantly which make it different from the traditional ways of writing. A linguistic and pragmatic analysis of both novels can be done. Both novels can be compared in terms of similarities and differences in the linguistic styles of diasporic male authors.