Multiculturalism and Contemporary British Fiction: Londonstani and The Islamist

Abstract

EUROPE IN BLACK AND WHITE

Lisbon, 12-14 May 2008

ABSTRACT

MULTICULTURALISM AND CONTEMPORARY BRITISH FICTION

ADRIANO ELIA - UNIVERSITY OF ROME "ROMA TRE"

At the beginning of the 21^st century, the need to move beyond post-colonial and cultural studies somewhat abstract categories seems to be stronger than ever. In order to analyse all-encompassing issues such as ‘Europe', ‘black' and ‘white', a reification of post-colonial theoretical tools is made possible by an ever-increasing permeability of the boundaries between subjects such as literature, sociology, contemporary history, political science, international relations, anthropology. By pursuing an interdisciplinary and pragmatic approach, one finds it difficult to identify a persuasive idea of ‘Europe' when even its ‘capital' Brussels has to face an identity compromise between Flemish and Walloons (Castells, AlSayyad: 2002); by the same token, it is hard to imagine that, say, Scottish people would define themselves first as Europeans, and then as British and Scottish - the opposite sequential order is much more likely.

Traditional categories such as ‘black' and ‘white' are also being repeatedly challenged and disrupted, witness the recent publication of novels such as Gautam Malkani's Londonstani (2006) and Ed Husain's The Islamist (2007). The former displays a religion-free kind of identity describing the life in Hounslow of apolitical British-Asian teenage rude-boys ironically embracing the traditionally opposed black hip-hop culture. The latter, instead, is based on a real account of a British Muslim who, after becoming an Islamic fundamentalist, rejected political Islam and returned to normal life.

My essay aims to investigate this anti-essentialist notion of the South-Asian community in contemporary Britain by reflecting on the passionate debate between those who keep celebrating multiculturalism as the necessary path to a more tolerant society, and those who blame the policy of appeasement that supposedly fostered the growth of Muslim fundamentalism in Britain. Bearing in mind the diverse colonial histories and the dangers of historical revisionism (Ferguson's ‘Anglobalization': 2002), rather than devising yet another facile theoretical classification in order to explain what is impossible to be pinpointed in all its complexities, I will conduct a socio-historical analysis of post-7/7 alleged death of multiculturalism - by cultural relativism and political correctness - based on the case studies described in the above-mentioned novels.                             

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Adriano Elia

Department of International Studies

Faculty of Political Science

University of Rome ‘Roma Tre'

aelia@uniroma3.it