From the Colonized Other to the Ruling Subject: A Post-colonial Subject Beyond the Theoretical Resistance in Mohsin Hamid’s The Reluctant Fundamentalist

Abstract

This study aims to analyze Mohsin Hamid’s The Reluctant Fundamentalist as a postcolonial instigation that goes beyond the mere textual resistance of postcolonial theories. It does so by representing the colonial subject’s appropriation of a reversed form of power, so that the conventional subject/other relationship is already subverted. Assuming in advance the subversion of the existing colonialist power, this novel functions as an allegory by depicting the personal story of the protagonist, Changez, in a physical and mental environment in which colonial oppression and postcolonial resistance constantly collide. Setting up a subversive cognitive frame across the narrative that precludes any possibility of the West’s otherization of the East, Changez’s story is both personal and unavoidably political, persistently mocking the displaced power of the West to generate postcolonial resistance. Paying close attention to this narrative setup, this study will analyze Changez’s inverted appropriation of the narrative power of the West, symbolized in the person of the American visitor. It will further probe Changez’s love triangle with his white girlfriend, Erica, and her dead ex-white boyfriend, Chris, in terms of an analysis of the (post)colonial power relationship. Also, by examining the process of Changez’s awakening from a subordinate to an anti-American instigator or warrior suggest that literature, especially novels, can convey a provocative message of subversion by assuming a reality that is fictional and feasible at the same time. This kind of fiction can ultimately play a role as a medium for the radical expression of anti-colonial resistance.