Topic > Colonialism and Metropolitanism in the Buddha of Suburbia

Societies are made up of a mixture of different cultures and people from different countries as well as cultural backgrounds. But in some cases, the unity of society gives way to culturally hybrid societies that cause identity problems and create ambivalence and in-between situations in the inner and social lives of individuals. This hybridity discusses the emergence of new transcultural forms that occurred with the impact of colonization and can also be associated with the work of Homi K. Bhabha, who states that ambivalence provides a description of the complex structure of attraction and repulsion. Therefore, the relationship between colonizer and colonized is characterized by the concept of hybridity. Furthermore, it is defined as ambivalent since the colonized subject will never be able to completely resist the colonizer. Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on "Why violent video games should not be banned"?Download an original essaySince multiculturalism is not a new phenomenon in European history, neither are its literary and artistic manifestations, including the suburban and metropolitan novel The Buddha of the suburbs by Hanif Kureishi lies in escaping the limits of postcolonial ethnicity dictated by the condition of immigrant. In this novel, the ambivalence and in-betweenness of hybrid identities in multicultural Britain are depicted through the main character Karim, where his cultural blend in terms of social, ethnic and even national identity seems to be mistreated and even swallowed up by his pride of finding somewhere. to which it may belong. So, how did Hanif Kureishi seek to redefine the relationship between the colonial margin and the metropolitan center? Firstly, what makes the novel so valuable is that Karim is portrayed as a middle-class Indo-Pakistani boy who intervenes in the ambivalent experience of British society. South Asian Community. From the beginning, Karim does not give the impression of being particularly interested in his heritage, but he shows a strong desire to escape the squalor of the suburbs, where “people rarely dreamed of setting out on the journey to happiness” (Kureishi 1999, p .8 ) The novel is presented from a racing perspective through the consciousness of Karim, the son of a British woman named Margaret and an Indian father named Haroon. She is not only together with her father's Indian friends Anwar, Jeeta and their daughter Jamila, Karim's best friend and sexual partner, but also with her unhappy, alcoholic British relatives Jean and Ted. Furthermore, it is important to remember that it is full of humorous depictions of confusing or somewhat multiple racial identities (Indians wanting to be more English and Englishmen finding satisfaction in rejecting their ethnocentric British heritage). From the beginning of the novel we can describe Karim's hybrid identity which causes ambivalence in his attitudes towards life and people, when it presents itself at the very beginning of the novel: “My name is Karim Amir, and I am an English born and grown up, Almost. I'm often thought of as a funny kind of Englishman, a new breed so to speak, emerging from two old stories. (p.1) Through this statement he gives the reader the first clue: his sense of incompleteness that accompanies him throughout the story. Karim's subversive actions are undefined and completely unsystematic. Indeed, according to Glabazna (2010, p.68), this is a fact that perhaps does not constitute the playing field for anticolonial politics and resistance, but is fully legitimate in a postcolonial world where any kind of subversive activity must necessarily reject all essential elements as illusions, and “instead use their own fragmentation,ambivalence and indeterminism”. Regarding his life in Great Britain, we can distinguish two opposing sides such as center and margin: metropolitan and suburban together with multiple conceptions of England. Therefore, the image of the immigrant who first tries to assimilate and realize the expectations of the host country and then reject this role to search for his own origins is, according to Karim, the problem of the "immigrant condition" (p.64) and of the creation of identity on the margins of society. Because his world is full of class and racial tensions, he is trapped in a society that patronizes or accepts the other, as long as the other meets traditional assumptions and commercial notions of exoticism. For Karim, the multicultural freedom offered by city life is based on the possibility of breaking down stereotypes; however, it comes with the humiliation of being labeled “ethnic” or a minority. However, over the course of the novel Karim learns to suffer and tolerate any humiliation that can help him succeed and escape the periphery. For example, as an actor he says he wanted the part, whatever it was. (p.139) Contrary to what it may seem, Karim does not want to conform but to be different, because he longs for adventure and can't wait to be somewhere else. When he left his suburban world, he realized the dangers of entering strange territory, especially after meeting Eleanor, he decided to climb the social ladder by losing not his Indian accent, as his father had done, but that of outskirts. (Zas Rey 2004, p.99) Lured by the fantasy of the glamorous and bohemian metropolitan world, Karim – as well as his suburban friends – desperately try to escape to the city in search of the world of elegant artists in central London, at all costs. costs. Indeed, it showed how difficult it is for a black person to evade the prejudice imposed on himself, when Shadwell (the theater director) with his cultural racism sees Karim as the perfect actor to play Mowgli in The Jungle Theater Production of book. As a result, Karim is appalled by the idea and is tempted to return to the periphery where he belongs, but the offensive implications of playing such an undignified role are soon gone. This role is a clear attempt by Karim to appear 'more Indian' on stage with his accent and covered "in brown slime" (p.146) even asking him to hiss like the snake that saves Mowgli's life. In this way, Kureishi reflects the cultural racism of white society. The director himself states that he was chosen for authenticity and not for experience (p.147). Both Shadwell's caricature of an Indian accent and his choice to stage a product of colonialism such as Rudyard Kipling's The Jungle Book, as well as the misconception of Asians as caricatured, "exploited immigrants constitute trials that Karim must endure to leave the suburbs". and improve his career and his life.” (Zas Rey 2004, p.100) But behind this there is another interesting aspect: Karim was the one who chose an artistic career to avoid the fate of being a mixed race in England (Kureishi 1999, p. 141). However, it is quite ironic that Karim gains respect and a new identity by being an actor of Asian stereotypes in the metropolis. Following Kureishi's line of thought in which he plays with this notion of representation, Pyke (another theater director) asked the group of actors – to which Karim belonged – to “focus on the way [they] think that [their ] position in society has been established” (pp. 168-169). Pyke thus shows us how he understands the world: divided into binary groups (oppressor-oppressed, master-slave, colonized-colonizer). On the other hand, Karim and his father enjoy the benefits of being.