9 Empire, security and citizenship in Arab British fiction
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Tasnim Qutait
Abstract
In Robin Yassin-Kassab’s novel The Road From Damascus (2008), Muntaha, one of the central characters, refuses to identify with ‘the Arab nation’, stating ‘I’m British anyway. I’m a British Muslim’. Through yoking a transnational religious affiliation to her country of settlement, Muntaha distances herself from Arab diaspora contexts and instead inscribes herself into a multicultural Britain. Robin Yasin-Kassab is one of a growing number of Arab novelists writing in English, including the likes of Ahdaf Soueif, Jamal Mahjoub, Selma Debbagh and Leila Aboulela, who take the subjectivities and displacements of Arab immigrant subjects in Britain as their theme. Their novels unfold as a drama of choice about belonging in diaspora, examining how the parallel and sometimes intersecting identities Arab and/or Muslim have been transformed in recent decades. This chapter demonstrates how these writers represent the impact of contemporary politics on Arab immigrants in Britain. In doing so, their novels reflect on the lingering legacy of empire and grapple with the specters of colonialism that continue to animate present conflicts.
Abstract
In Robin Yassin-Kassab’s novel The Road From Damascus (2008), Muntaha, one of the central characters, refuses to identify with ‘the Arab nation’, stating ‘I’m British anyway. I’m a British Muslim’. Through yoking a transnational religious affiliation to her country of settlement, Muntaha distances herself from Arab diaspora contexts and instead inscribes herself into a multicultural Britain. Robin Yasin-Kassab is one of a growing number of Arab novelists writing in English, including the likes of Ahdaf Soueif, Jamal Mahjoub, Selma Debbagh and Leila Aboulela, who take the subjectivities and displacements of Arab immigrant subjects in Britain as their theme. Their novels unfold as a drama of choice about belonging in diaspora, examining how the parallel and sometimes intersecting identities Arab and/or Muslim have been transformed in recent decades. This chapter demonstrates how these writers represent the impact of contemporary politics on Arab immigrants in Britain. In doing so, their novels reflect on the lingering legacy of empire and grapple with the specters of colonialism that continue to animate present conflicts.
Chapters in this book
- Front Matter i
- Contents v
- List of figures vii
- Contributors viii
- Foreword xi
- Acknowledgements xvii
- Introduction 1
- I Institutions of empire 27
- 1 ‘Bloomsbury bazaar’ 29
- 2 Anthropology at the end of empire 46
- 3 ‘He is not a “racist” but should not be appointed director of LSE’ 65
- II Writing identity, conflict and class 85
- 4 Beyond experience 87
- 5 Empire, war and class in Graham Swift’s Last Orders (1996) 106
- III Racial others, national memory 125
- 6 White against empire 127
- 7 Racism, redistribution, redress 147
- 8 Exemplar empires 166
- IV At home in postcolonial Britain 187
- 9 Empire, security and citizenship in Arab British fiction 189
- 10 Black, beautiful and essentially British 207
- 11 Convivial cultures and the commodification of otherness in London nightlife in the 1970s and 1980s 230
- 12 Tribe Arts, Tribe Talks 248
- Afterword 259
- Index 267
Chapters in this book
- Front Matter i
- Contents v
- List of figures vii
- Contributors viii
- Foreword xi
- Acknowledgements xvii
- Introduction 1
- I Institutions of empire 27
- 1 ‘Bloomsbury bazaar’ 29
- 2 Anthropology at the end of empire 46
- 3 ‘He is not a “racist” but should not be appointed director of LSE’ 65
- II Writing identity, conflict and class 85
- 4 Beyond experience 87
- 5 Empire, war and class in Graham Swift’s Last Orders (1996) 106
- III Racial others, national memory 125
- 6 White against empire 127
- 7 Racism, redistribution, redress 147
- 8 Exemplar empires 166
- IV At home in postcolonial Britain 187
- 9 Empire, security and citizenship in Arab British fiction 189
- 10 Black, beautiful and essentially British 207
- 11 Convivial cultures and the commodification of otherness in London nightlife in the 1970s and 1980s 230
- 12 Tribe Arts, Tribe Talks 248
- Afterword 259
- Index 267
