Mohsin Hamid’s exit west as a magic realist text
No Thumbnail Available
Date
2020
Authors
Journal Title
Journal ISSN
Volume Title
Publisher
UMT, Lahore
Abstract
The study explores the use of magic realism in Mohsin Hamid’s Exit West by looking at its essentially postmodern roots and the aftermath of introducing magic realist characteristics in the novel. The present research tries to look at the text after getting magic realist touch, in the present case the effects of magic realist concepts on the novel’s readers and subject matter. Stemming from socio-political, cultural, and historical development, postmodernism literature is a way of depicting postmodern life. Magic Realism is its very offspring and to define it is difficult because of its open-ended interpretations ever since it first appeared in 1925 in art. It is a literary style in which magical or supernatural elements are embedded within a modern world. It is also considered a subgenre of ‘fantasy’ because of the incorporation of imaginary settings and actions in a text, while also trying to make it relevant for realist setting. Owing to its postmodern origin, Mohsin Hamid’s novel Exit West reveals instances of blurring genres, shifting from political to psychological, magical to realist fiction. The present research suggests that the novel introduces the ordinary technological gadgets as magical inventions bent on globalizing the world, by minimizing the idea of territorial borders that are the epitome of nationalism. The findings of this research suggest that it is a novel showing both physical and metaphysical journeys of people through the transcendental effects of cellphones and magical doors respectively. Above all, Hamid foresees a better future of humanity because of the interconnectedness of the world today through the usage of technological gadgets.