Investigating the Metropolitan Hegemon: A Postcolonial Sociological Reading of The Reluctant Fundamentalist
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Abstract
The current study explores the intricate and interdependent relationship between the modern metropolitan centers and the non-metropolitan peripheries by questioning the discursive modes of hegemony prevalent in the wake of the postcolonial era. With a postcolonial sociological stance, the study employs a framework based on the concepts of Metropolis and Hegemony proposed by Farias & Stemmler (2006), Ashcroft (1998), Gramsci (1971) etc. The Reluctant Fundamentalist by Mohsin Hamid is chosen as a text for the study. Contrary to the traditional critiques of postcolonial studies, this study suggests a paradigm shift in the favor of postcolonial sociological perspective to have a comprehensive understanding of the sociological dimensions of postcoloniality of the modern world. The study shows how The Reluctant Fundamentalist is suggestive of an interdependent relationship between the metropolitan hegemon and the non-metropolis. Changez’s effort to identify with himself with metropolitan hegemon is not successful and ultimately he realizes the dynamic relation between the metrolpolitan and non-metropolitan identities striving for stability in chaos.