Inhabiting a Chaos-World: Refugee Transnational Identities in Mohsin Hamid’s Exit West (2017)

This article explores Mohsin Hamid’s novel Exit West (2017) combining principles pertaining to social geography, affect theory, and (post)migration studies with postcolonial theory. It aims to highlight how Hamid’s use of magical realism triggers political, philosophical, and socio-emotional refl...

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Main Author: Tosi, Valerie
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: Fondazione Università Ca’ Foscari 2024-12-01
Series:Il Tolomeo
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Online Access:http://doi.org/10.30687/Tol/2499-5975/2024/01/004
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author Tosi, Valerie
author_facet Tosi, Valerie
author_sort Tosi, Valerie
collection DOAJ
description This article explores Mohsin Hamid’s novel Exit West (2017) combining principles pertaining to social geography, affect theory, and (post)migration studies with postcolonial theory. It aims to highlight how Hamid’s use of magical realism triggers political, philosophical, and socio-emotional reflections by condensing in the story arc the intercultural and intersubjective processes that characterise the migratory experience and the postmigrant condition. Firstly, it investigates how Exit West incorporates magical realism to represent the psychoemotional dynamics of migration and to problematize the concept of cosmopolitanism; secondly, it discusses how the novel promotes a re-thinking of migration identities and experiences in terms of affective transnationality; thirdly, it points out how the refugee communities represented in the novel are manifestations of a chaos-world in which identity formation is shaped by sociocultural encounters, multilingualism, media use, and processes of affiliation.
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spelling doaj-art-9ed6a44ae3fa41b39b7204c27031bf072025-08-20T02:30:42ZengFondazione Università Ca’ FoscariIl Tolomeo2499-59752024-12-0126110.30687/Tol/2499-5975/2024/01/004journal_article_19364Inhabiting a Chaos-World: Refugee Transnational Identities in Mohsin Hamid’s Exit West (2017)Tosi, Valerie0Università di Pisa, Italia This article explores Mohsin Hamid’s novel Exit West (2017) combining principles pertaining to social geography, affect theory, and (post)migration studies with postcolonial theory. It aims to highlight how Hamid’s use of magical realism triggers political, philosophical, and socio-emotional reflections by condensing in the story arc the intercultural and intersubjective processes that characterise the migratory experience and the postmigrant condition. Firstly, it investigates how Exit West incorporates magical realism to represent the psychoemotional dynamics of migration and to problematize the concept of cosmopolitanism; secondly, it discusses how the novel promotes a re-thinking of migration identities and experiences in terms of affective transnationality; thirdly, it points out how the refugee communities represented in the novel are manifestations of a chaos-world in which identity formation is shaped by sociocultural encounters, multilingualism, media use, and processes of affiliation. http://doi.org/10.30687/Tol/2499-5975/2024/01/004Chaos-world. Exit West. Mohsin Hamid. Multiplicity. Refugee novel. Transnationalism
spellingShingle Tosi, Valerie
Inhabiting a Chaos-World: Refugee Transnational Identities in Mohsin Hamid’s Exit West (2017)
Il Tolomeo
Chaos-world. Exit West. Mohsin Hamid. Multiplicity. Refugee novel. Transnationalism
title Inhabiting a Chaos-World: Refugee Transnational Identities in Mohsin Hamid’s Exit West (2017)
title_full Inhabiting a Chaos-World: Refugee Transnational Identities in Mohsin Hamid’s Exit West (2017)
title_fullStr Inhabiting a Chaos-World: Refugee Transnational Identities in Mohsin Hamid’s Exit West (2017)
title_full_unstemmed Inhabiting a Chaos-World: Refugee Transnational Identities in Mohsin Hamid’s Exit West (2017)
title_short Inhabiting a Chaos-World: Refugee Transnational Identities in Mohsin Hamid’s Exit West (2017)
title_sort inhabiting a chaos world refugee transnational identities in mohsin hamid s exit west 2017
topic Chaos-world. Exit West. Mohsin Hamid. Multiplicity. Refugee novel. Transnationalism
url http://doi.org/10.30687/Tol/2499-5975/2024/01/004
work_keys_str_mv AT tosivalerie inhabitingachaosworldrefugeetransnationalidentitiesinmohsinhamidsexitwest2017