The Buddha of Suburbia

Hanif Kureishi

POSTCOLONIALISM

WORLD
US- OTHER mentality
Dehumanization of colonized peoples
Distorted world- view
NATION
Value shifts
Loss of identity
Challenges to faith, language, politics
PERSON
Dehumanization of self
Inability to support/ protect self/ family
Self- doubt

Things to remember:
Post-colonialism is an intellectual direction that exists since
around the middle of the 20thcentury. It developed from and
mainly refers to the time after colonialism.
Post-colonialism also deals with conflicts of identity and cultural
belonging
The main target of post-colonialism remains the same: To review
and to deconstruct one-sided, worn-out attitudes in a lively
discussion of colonisation

MULTICULTURALISM
The social idea of a multiplicity of racial and ethnic identities, unique yet also hybrizing, greatly
influenced artistic and intellectual production after the war.
Characteristics
1. Shows the characters as unique individuals
2. Portrays all people as being respected for being themselves not for their outstanding abilities to gain
approval
3. Shows the characters as physically diverse
4. Allows the reader to identify with the characters
5. Accurately portrays culture
6. Describes social issues and problems frankly and accurately
7. Has problems resolved without intervention from the dominate race or culture
8. Shows all characters as equal

9. Glorifies all people's achievements

10. Presents accurate events and information
11. Describes the setting authentically
12. Seeks to rectify historical distortions and omissions
13. Provides legitimate dialog
14. Void of all bias and stereotypes
15. Author accurately identifies with or is a member of the culture portrayed
16. Culture is portrayed multidimensionally
17. Appropriate detail of insider perspective is provided as a natural part of the piece

Issues Surrounding Multicultural Literature

Authenticity (What is authentic? How do you know it when you
experience it?)
Insider/Outsider (Who has the right to tell a specific story? What
are the socioeconomic/political implications here?)

 I was born in London, of an English mother and Pakistani father. My

father, who lives in London, came to England from Bombay in 1947
to be educated by the old colonial power. He married here and
never went back to India. The rest of his larger family, his
brothers, their wives, his sisters, moved from Bombay to Karachi,
in Pakistan, after partition. (Kureishi, 2011a: 3)

 Writing would be a message to the world outside my family, and

outside the suburbs. I would inform people what was going on,
what life in the new Britain a Britain unknowingly transforming
itself for ever was like for us. (Idem: Ibidem)

RACE AND RACISM

,,The thing was, we were supposed to be English, but to the
English we were always wogs and nigs and Pakis and the rest of it
(Kureishi, 1990: 53)

Margins.... centres
SO, moving into London clearly represents a movement from the
margins to the centre, both in a literal and in a metaphorical way. In
a way, as is invoked in the text, this feels like re-possessing the
Empire:
,, So this was London at last, and nothing gave me more pleasure
than strolling around my new possession all day. London seemed like
a house with five thousand rooms, all different; the kick was to work
out how they connected, and eventually to walk through all of them.
(...) This part of West London seemed like the country to me, with
none of the disadvantages, no cows or farmers. (Kureishi, 1990: 126)

REFERENCES
Sharma, Surbhi, Kureishi, Hanif, Postcolonial Studies @ Ehttps://repositorium.sdum.uminho.
pt/bitstream/1822/30775/1/The%20Buddha%20of%20Suburbia.%20Study%20Notes.pdfmory;
last updated July 2012; last consulted: 20/11/2016.

Works cited:
- Balasubramanyam, Rajeev (2008), The Rhetoric of Multiculturalism, in
Eckstein, Lars, Korte, Barbara, Pirker, Eva Ulrike and Reinfandt, Christoph
(eds), Multi-Ethnic Britain 2000+: New Perspectives in Literature, Film
and the Arts, Amsterdam and New York, Rodopi, pp. 33-44.
- Huggan, Graham (2001), The Postcolonial Exotic: Marketing the Margins,
London: Routledge