Representation of Diasporic Identity in Nadeem Aslam's Maps For Lost Lovers and Kamila Shamsie's Home Fire

Abstract

The current research analyzes Nadeem Aslam’s Maps for Lost Lovers and Kamila Shamsie’s Home Fire in the light of the concept of ambivalence, hybridity, and mimicry, and the way these texts establish a connection with trans-culturalism, terrorism, and Islamophobia. If Shamsie’s novel Home Fire highlights the issue of fundamentalism and its effect on the distorted image of Muslim immigrants, similarly, Aslam's counsels cultural hybridity among diversity and heterogeneity for lasting peace and prosperity in diasporic societies. The present study not only explores the feelings of alienation, ambivalence and interdependency of trans-culturalism but also sheds impartial light on the clash of cultures and the subsequent issues, such as subjugation, exploitation, victimization, and injustice meted out to the Muslim Community across the globe on foreign soil. The researchers have adapted qualitative and descriptive methods while relying on the thorough reading of the selected British-Asian novels as well as the related critical reviews.