Diasporic Pakistani novels seek alternatives to nation-based identification

Evidence

Writing of contemporary novels by diasporic Pakistanis such as Aslam and Shamsie, Cara N. Cilano identifies their quest for “imaginative alternatives to dominant forms of identification,” such as nation or exclusivist types of culture. Their geographical range and international cast of characters moving between locations suggest, at times, “an attempt to transcend the pull of a shared national affect and, at others, the draw such attachments have in contexts overdetermined by conflict.” — Peter Morey, Islamophobia and the Novel, 392

Categorization

• XREF: Cilano’s framing of ‘imaginative alternatives to dominant forms of identification’ gives critical vocabulary for Naqvi’s shifting identities between Pakistan and America in Home Boy.