Exploring Racism, and Anxieties of Identity in Aslam's Selected Work

Abstract

The question of identity and sense of displacement is always fundamental for culturally displaced people. The objective of the Diaspora writings is to explore the construction of new identities in new cultural places and the painful experiences of migration. The present study aims to explore the issue of identity and racism in selected fictional works, Season of the Rainbirds (1993) and Maps for Lost Lovers (2004) by Aslam. For this purpose, Bhabha's 'The Location of Culture' (1993) and Fanon's 'Black Skin, White Mask's (1952) are used as theoretical frameworks to scrutinize the selected novels. The research is descriptive qualitative, and placed within the interpretive paradigm. The data for the present study is in the form of textual paragraphs, which is taken from the selected novels and is collected through the purposive sampling technique. Findings of the study revealed that hybrid identities of minorities and immigrants are resulting because they are marginalized by the majority class and are subjected to racist and stereotypical attitudes, which help in hybridization.