An Analytical Exploration of Diaspora in Kamila Shamsie's Novels

This study attempts to examine how Shamsie presents Diaspora and diasporic experience in her novels and attempts to highlight how she portrays the intricacies of identity, belongingness and displacement, which are mostly encapsulated in an individual of the Diaspora. Close analysis of Burnt Shadows, In the City by the Sea and Home Fire helps to show how Shamsie’s characters attempt to cope with the issues arising as a common consequence of living in-between cultures, occupying in between ancestral heritage and alienation from the norms dictated by the new environment. The importance of the historical and political settings of post 9/11 Islamophobia and legacies of colonialism is stressed to bring about the manifestation of the formation of diasporic identity. The use of narrative techniques such as multi-layer character development and non-linear storytelling is also examined to show displacement’s emotional and psychological struggles on Shamsie’s work. Lastly, this research would add to the general discourse on Diaspora literature by bringing out Shamsie’s own strategies of dealing with diasporic memories of the subsequent generations who experienced the diasporic existence in the context of the contemporary World, where globalisation has rendered a swift and traumatic movement of people not unusual or exceptional.