CULTURAL CROSSROADS: IDENTITY, BELONGING, AND DISPLACEMENT IN ALI’S IN THE KITCHEN AND HAMID’S THE RELUCTANT FUNDAMENTALIST
Abstract
The process of identity formation is inherently dynamic, shaped by a continuous negotiation between self-perception and external categorisation. Individuals and groups actively construct, redefine, and sometimes resist their personal and collective identities in response to intersecting cultural, social, political, and psychological forces. This study examines the theme of identity negotiation in Monica Ali’s In the Kitchen and Mohsin Hamid’s The Reluctant Fundamentalist, two contemporary novels that explore the complexities of personal, cultural, and political identity within the broader contexts of globalisation and migration. Ali’s In the Kitchen follows Gabriel Lightfoot, a British chef navigating the tensions of a multicultural London, while Hamid’s The Reluctant Fundamentalist traces the experiences of Changez, a Pakistani man whose identity undergoes profound transformation in the aftermath of 9/11. Both novels illustrate the fluid nature of identity, demonstrating how immigration, racial dynamics, and geopolitical upheavals shape individual self-perception. By analysing the psychological, emotional, and social dimensions of identity formation, this paper explores how Ali and Hamid portray the continuous renegotiation of selfhood in a world where traditional binaries—East and West, tradition and modernity, personal and political—are increasingly blurred. Through their protagonists’ journeys, these works illuminate the challenges of self-definition in a transnational landscape, offering insight into the evolving discourse on identity in contemporary literature.
Keyword : identity, globalisation, migration, multiculturalism.
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References
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