Alienation in Kamila Shamsie’s Kartography and Burnt Shadows: An Orientalist perspective

Author : Dr. Sumitra Huidrom, Saleha Nizam

Abstract :The purpose of this paper is to analyse the theme of alienation in Kamila Shamsie’s Burnt Shadows and Home Fire. Since she writes about the difficulties of assimilating to a foreign country with its own culture and beliefs, her work in some ways mirrors her own diasporic experience as an immigrant. Readers can get a glimpse of immigrant life and the on-going struggle between the home country and the foreign nation through these novels. On the basis of Edward Said’s Orientalism, an attempt is made to examine the idea of alienation in the respective novels by tracing the protagonists’ journeys in the concerned texts.

Keywords :Alienation, assimilation, diaspora, immigrant, Orientalism.

Conference Name :International Conference on English Literature and Linguistics (ICELL-25)

Conference Place Pune, India

Conference Date 9th Aug 2025