Mohsin Hamid, Precarity, and the (Re)Education of Western Audiences in Post-9/11 West Asian Literature

Abstract

This thesis explores the idea that the theory of precarity, as found throughout Judith Butler's post-9/11 essays, makes a useful tool and criticism in analyzing Mohsin Hamid's post-9/11 work to discover that one of the messages of Hamid is the re-education of Western audiences. Beginning with a general discussion of precarity and its prime culprit, neoliberalism, the thesis explores three of Hamid's post-9/11 works: The Reluctant Fundamentalist, How to Get Filthy Rich in Rising Asia, and Discontent and its Civilizations: Dispatches from Lahore, New York, and London. In the examination of each novel, this thesis will discuss the precariousness found in West Asia, the possible explanations of this precarity that can be found in the links between precariousness and neoliberalism, and how both precarity and neoliberalism are presented by Hamid in each novel in a re-education intended for Western audiences.