A03 context immigrant fiction comparison Flashcards
What were key points made by cultural critic Dalia Mogahed in her Ted Talk about being a muslim in America post 9/11
• 80% of news coverage about Islam and Muslims is negative
• most Americans don’t know a Muslim
• They talk about our community like we are a tumour in the body of America … They either remove it or keep it under surveillance… we are not a tumour but a vital organ
• National Muslim organisations warned Muslims in America to be alert, be aware, to not congregate immediately post 9/11
What were key context points made by the British Pathé in Our Jamaican problem 1955
• ‘Nationwide concern is felt at the influx of British West Indians who come in search of hope’
• By 1954, 10,000 immigrants had come to Britain, by 1955 15,000 had - exponential growth
• ‘Despite our reservations, they have a perfect right to be here’
• ‘Contrary to reports, the influx of immigrants doesn’t lead to the unemployment of white people’
What key points about 9/11 were made by historian John Green in Crash Course?
• almost 3000 people died
• the attacks were carried out by al Qaeda
• George Bush introduced the Bush doctrine, launching a ‘Global war on terror’, stating that ‘Either you are with us or you are with the terrorists’
- As a result Air strikes were launched on 7th October by the US on Afghanistan as the Taliban had connections with Al Qaeda leader
- Then in 2003 Iraq are invaded by US
• Bush’s popularity reportedly increased by 90% in the weeks following 9/11 (Wikipedia)
Key points/ facts from British African-Caribbean people Wikipedia
• estimated that the number of people from the West Indies grew from 15,000 in 1951 to 172,000 in 1961
• became publicised by British newspapers in 2016 that the Home Office had tried to deport British commonwealth immigrants that had arrived before 1973 if they couldn’t provide passports, despite having legally travelled under their parents passports 1948 nationality act
What was the 2011 Prevent Scheme?
the Department of Education introduced the scheme in order to prevent radicalism, often by promoting ‘British fundamental values’
What does critic Rebecca Balfourth say about Hortense’s voice?
•suggests that Hortense speaks in ‘old-fashioned, primly spoken English.’
• suggests that Hortense’s voice ‘acts as a barrier’ in some cases
What does critic Diane Crimp say about Hortense’s expectations about England?
• suggests that Hortense has a ‘tendency to idealise’
What does critic George Norton suggest about Changez’ identity due to his experience with capitalist America
• Changez ‘sacrificed his identity to the power of the dollar’
• Post 9/11 Changez experiences ‘disenchantment with his capitalist affiliations’
What did Hamid say about his intention for the Reluctant fundamentalist
he wanted it to be a ‘kind of mirror’ designed to make the reader consider their own politics and beliefs
What did Hamid say about hybrid identities
‘to be a human being and to be a hybrid being are the same thing’
What does critic George Norton say about Changez’ voice in the reluctant fundamentalist
the use of dramatic monologue ‘refuses a single definitive meaning’
What are Rushdie’s Imaginary homelands?
places that are fixed in the past so have to be mythically represented, reflects feelings of patriotism post 9/11 in america
What does critic Georgina Ramsay say about the reasons for Caribbeans joining the armed forces in WW2
they felt they had a ‘familial duty to England’
What does Critic Georgina Ramsaysuggest about the relationship between immigrants and the mother country?
•the Mother Country’s rejection of Caribbean immigrants is an ‘act of violence’
• ‘an infantilising, unloving version of maternal control’
What does critic Georgina Ramsay say about Bernard in Small Island
his attitude represents ‘the feelings of many White Britons in post- war london’ who felt ‘threatened by the rising number of Caribbean immigrants’
What does critic Roshan Doug say about Changez’ experience in America
it is ‘an experience of humiliation’
According to British future 2024, what are attitudes towards immigration?
69% of the British public sat they are dissatisfied with the way the current government are dealing with immigration.
How is Pakistan’s fragile economy linked to American neo imperialism?
• Pakistan was decolonised from British imperialism in 1947
• however it’s economic and political institutions are still subject to the hegemony (control) of US neocolonialism
What is the brain drain?
The US attract skilled workers from the East to contribute to the capitalist society by promoting and displaying the benefits of materialism
What does critic Mleitat suggest about Changez’ involvement with capitalism?
• America’s capitalist economy is based on ‘lustful avarice’ which is demonstrated through sexual representations in the book
What does critic Mleitat suggest about why Changez doesn’t belong?
he is seen as ‘incompatible with American citizenship and is therefore excluded from it’
What does critic Mleitat suggest about Changez’ beliefs about American media?
suggests that Changez ‘resents the stereotypical images of Muslims depicted in America’s media’
What does critic Mleitat suggest about Changez’s scholarship
it is part of an ‘exploitative structure’ to benefit America’s capitalist society
What does critic Mleitat suggest about Changez’s involvement with capitalism?
Changez is ‘sucked in as a valuable product’
What does critic Bickley suggest about Hortense’s and Gilbert’s experience in Britain
‘Theirs is the post-colonialist experience of the 1940s, characterised by a sense of exile and disillusionment’
What does critic Bickley suggest about Gilbert/ immigrant’s difficulty getting jobs:
they are ‘constantly downgraded’, given jobs which are ‘beneath both their ambitions and abilities’
How does Gilbert experience rejection according to critic Bickley?
He experiences ‘rejection on racial grounds’
Edward Said’s theory of the other
• the other is strange, Orient, East
• the self is Western, white
• the other is anything outside of the self
Demise of British Empire
• granted independence to India in 1947
• granted independence to Jamisica in 1962
• Most overseas colonies made independent late 50s and 60s
What jobs were advertised in the Caribbean?
London Transport, textiles industry, NHS
Why was there British job insecurity post WW2 in Britain?
• millions of servicemen were demobilised - the labour market couldn’t absorb them all, led to increased levels of unemployment
1948 developments in UK
•1948 Nationality Act
•NHS created - Gilbert and Hortense accused of taking these facilities from the British
Critical shortage of housing post WW2
• critical shortage of housing post WW2 - half a million housing units destroyed, repairs on damaged housing postponed due to lack of funding
• therefore British hostile to immigrants coming over
Increased tension during WW2 due to Americans
White and Black American GIs unsegregated in Britain unlike Jim Crow laws in America, therefore brought racial tension over.
Why didn’t Labour support black immigrants necessarily?
•George Isaac, Minister of Labour claimed it was an ‘entirely different threat’
•People were already reluctant about Eastern European immigrants (85,000 had come over with the Voluntary Work Service), this would be the final straw)
West Indian immigration during WW2
• 1000 West Indians came to work in munitions in Lancashire, another 10,000 were ground crew with the RAF (e.g Gilbert)
Mohsin Hamid quotes from essay ‘A Home for Water Lilies’
• describes himself as a ‘Lahore-born nomad’
• ‘a plant rooted not in dry earth but in ponds and streams’
• ‘chameleon skin’
• ‘growing American self-censorship’
• ‘It seemed two halves of myself were suddenly at war’
Mohsin Hamid quotes from My Reluctant fundamentalist essay
• ‘there was a deep resentment in much of the rest of the world towards the sole remaining superpower’
• ‘travelling on my Pakistani passport became increasingly unpleasant’
• ‘if I left my job to write full time, I would lose my employment based visa and be forced to depart permanently for Pakistan’
• ‘I turned to writing to help me understand my split self and my split world’
Divided society 2024
Southport murders resulting in ani-immigrant riots
Ruth Maxey the reluctant fundamentalist
• the novel is ‘all about performativity’
• Changez ‘prostitutes his own cultural and emotional ideals’ to gain an experience of White America
Sharmila Mukherjee TRF
Tipping point - a city as hybridised as New York is converted into ‘an insular fortress that is hostile to outsiders’ post 9/11
Kim Evelyn Small Island
• Migrants had to realise London was ‘ a dream built on the foundations of the colonial myth’
• Migrants from the West Indies treated as ‘members from a separate sphere of Britishness’
Corrine Duboin Small Island
• Levy begins to explore her identity through Small Island not as a ‘rejected outsider, but as a critical insider’
Apply Paul Gilroy’s postcolonialist theory to Small Island
Levy rewrites the history of post war London and white history from an immigrant perspective - limited presence of black writers in literature
Levy context
Born in London to Jamaican Parents who were a part of the Windrush generation - exploring her experience and identity as a second generation immigrant
Levy essay
‘It is time to put the Caribbean back where it belongs – in the main narrative of British history’
‘My heritage is Britain’s story too’
Rushdie 1991 Imaginary Homelands collection of essays on the human migrant experience
Rushdie wrote that the migrant had to discover new ways to be human after losing the very things that give shape to their humanity: their roots, culture and social knowledge
Parul Sehgal New Ways of Being essay on universal themes within immigrant fiction
‘Fractured identities and estrangement’ as these are ‘the stuff of all modern literature’
