Browsing by Author "Amina Abbas"

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    Investigating east-west encounters:
    (UMT Lahore, 2022) Amina Abbas
    Burnt Shadows is based on fictionalizing certain historical events, that is, the narration of the histories of two families during World War II, atomic bombing attack in Japan, colonialism in India, division of sub-continent into Pakistan and India, and the conflicts between Pakistan, Afghanistan, and America. The study explores the novelist's depiction of the characters who belong to the West and East, resulting in politicizing the representation. Kamila Shamsie treats the characters based on their national identity. Those characters who belong to the USA/West have been positively represented in the text. However, characters from Pakistan/East or non Western countries have been misrepresented. Additionally, the most critical aspects are the misrepresentation of the Eastern characters, political, and historical interference in the novel, which are still not explored. This study analyzes Burnt Shadows by following the theoretical framework of Postcolonial Re-Orientalism derived from Lisa Lau and Om Prakash Dwivedi's Re-Orientalism and Indian Writing in English and Lau and Ana Christina Mendes’ Re Orientalism and South Asian Identity Politics. The study employs qualitative, interpretive, and textual analytical methods to codify and interpret the primary and secondary data. Furthermore, it is to investigate how the characters of the West have been represented with a positive image. However, the characters of the East and Islamic religion have been misrepresented and politicized. Besides, it is examined how Shamsie consciously/unconsciously becomes a re orientalist as she portrays the negative image of the East as compared to the West. Hence, post-colonial Re-Orientalism is the central aspect to justify the role of Shamsie as a re orientalist who, with the self-assumed unreliable narration of the story, partially treats her characters' descriptions