Partly Familiar, Partly Novel Too: Fantasy and Science Fiction in Mohsin Hamid’s Exit West

Abstract

This article proposes a reading of Hamid’s novel Exit West (2017) that pays attention to the tropes and formulas of fantasy and science fiction used to frame an account of the so-called refugee crisis. Although the novel portrays situations rooted in the global concern regarding migrants, Hamid structures his story through associations with non-mimetic genres employing the trope of magical doors that provide escape to those desperate to flee their surroundings. I argue that replacing the hardships of travel with such a magical means of transport helps to relativize our perception of the situation in terms of science-fictional and fantasy scenarios. At the same time, the “unrealistic” depiction of the real sociopolitical problem leads to thematic reflections that are not grounded in the pity raised by the excessive attention paid to the dangers of migration, but that rather invite to a critical, positive engagement with the concept of hybridity, dramatized by Hamid in both the form and the content of his novel. Since what provides SF its generic cohesion is its use of ideology rather than specific structures or themes (Moreno, 2014), and since fantasy can be read underlying the political potential of its affective dimension (Clúa, 2017), the critical consideration of these two genres gives Exit West easy passage into a committed discussion about its context.