“A Funny Kind of Englishman” Racism and New Identities in Hanif Kureishi’s The Buddha of Suburbia

Abstract

[eng] The Buddha of Suburbia was Hanif Kureishi‘s ground-breaking debut novel. Soon after its publication during the 1990s it became a successful prize winning novel that deals with topics such as the immigrant condition within Britain, class and racism. The novel‘s originality was based on the representation of a series of hybrid characters that were widely unrepresented in British literature at the time, and its untroubled approach towards racism and sex made it very popular. This dissertation will first of all analyze how The Buddha of Suburbia shows racism at different degrees within the context of 1970s Britain. At a second level it will analyze how through the representation of new forms of British identity the novel challenges hegemonic discourse. To achieve this, the paper will focus on the evolution of the main character and narrator, Karim, and on a second level, his best friend, Jamila, second generation characters of Asian descent. The novel is acknowledged to be partially autobiographical and the dissertation will also identify how The Buddha of Suburbia is influenced by the author‘s own experiences.