Abstract
ABSTRACT This essay revisits the relationship between literature and politics by focusing on a ‘current’ event – Sajid Javid’s 2019 repatriation of Shamima Begum – and Kamila Shamsie’s 2017 novel Home Fire, which predicted that revocation would be a tactic used by the Home Office to resolve the problem of returning extremists. Building on this synchronic moment, the essay argues that the sort of sustained textual engagement used to analyse a novel must be applied to a political event. In doing so, it is possible to see how statelessness has been weaponized by the Tory party’s various Home Secretaries, from Theresa May to Priti Patel. Unlike Shamsie’s prolific writing in The Guardian, Home Fire manages to take back control of the narrative of identity by emphasising the reciprocal relationship between reader and character, all the while working against what has been identified by Bonnie Honig as the ‘conditional order of hospitality’. By taking into account the difference in how we read a newspaper article versus a novel, this essay will weigh in on the unique position of the contemporary novel to emphasise the urgent need to inspect the rhetorical construction of the citizen.
Sign-in/Register to access full text options 
Talk to us
Join us for a 30 min session where you can share your feedback and ask us any queries you have
Schedule a callDisclaimer: All third-party content on this website/platform is and will remain the property of their respective owners and is provided on "as is" basis without any warranties, express or implied. Use of third-party content does not indicate any affiliation, sponsorship with or endorsement by them. Any references to third-party content is to identify the corresponding services and shall be considered fair use under The CopyrightLaw.
