Indefinite identity: the textual construction of ambiguity in The Reluctant Fundamentalist

Abstract: Indefinite Identity: the Textual Construction of Ambiguity in The Reluctant Fundamentalist This paper intends to analyse The Reluctant Fundamentalist, a recent postcolonial novel by Mohsin Hamid (2007) from a stylistic and narratological point of view, and show how the text reshapes the motif of fear of the “other” by adopting the technique of the double pattern, i.e. the interconnection of literary and non-literary aspects of discourse. The main mode of reference lies in the dramatic monologue, typically exemplified by Robert Browing’s ‘The Last Duchess’ (1842), and enriched by the author through the techniques of focalisation, implicature and pragmatics. The paper is based on a linguistic-stylistic perspective in order to question the textual complexity of this one-voiced novel, focusing in particular on how the unreliable narrator craftily constructs an ambiguous sense of identity in his storytelling about terrorism and displacement. Key words: Mohsin Hamid, stylistics, literary pragmatics, fictional identity