Engaging Politically from the Margin-Critical Cosmopolitanism in the Works of Kamila Shamsie

This essay explores Pakistani British writer Kamila Shamsie’s engagement in local and global politics, focusing in particular on her book-length non-fiction Offence: The Muslim Case (2009) and two recent novels, Burnt Shadows (2009) and A God in Every Stone (2014), which mark two significant temporal points in Shamsie’s life: 9/11, and her acquisition of British citizenship. Bringing to the fore the impact of international events, immigration, and national allegiance on Shamsie’s political engagement, I argue that these three books bear witness to Shamsie’s critical cosmopolitanism, which is locally rooted, universally diverse, and essentially self-reflective. Shamsie’s cosmopolitanism issues forth from the perspectives of silenced and marginalized Pakistanis, Muslims, migrants, and women, but it does not take plurality simply as the goal when challenging universal norms that are essentially ethnocentric, as exemplified by the global designs of British imperialism and American nationalism. At the same time as it addresses uneven international and cross-cultural relations, it also acutely discerns, from a micro-societal perspective, changes within personal, national, and other local identities. It reflects internally and reflexively on the problems of Islamic fundamentalism, divided loyalties and nationalism, as well as gender politics in Pakistan. Shamsie’s works ultimately and paradoxically show that, rather than mobility across borders, reflexive self-understanding is a core component of cosmopolitanism, on the basis of which connection to the world is critically established.

關鍵字

politics ； critical cosmopolitanism ； Offence ； Burnt Shadows ； A God in Every Stone

並列摘要

本文藉由巴基斯坦裔英國作家卡美拉．森絲的三部作品——長篇散文《冒犯：穆斯林個案》(2009) 與兩本小說《灼痕》(2009)和《每一塊石頭都有神》(2014)，探討作者對地方政治與全球政治的投入。此三部作品合併來看，彰顯出作者生命中兩個關鍵點——九一一事件和成為英國公民，進而凸顯了國際事件、移民和愛國心對其政治投入的影響。本文主張，此三部作品印證了森絲的世界主義是帶有批判動能的，其根植於地方，強調多元化的普遍性，且本質上是自我反思的。此批判的世界主義透過巴基斯坦、穆斯林、移民和女性的視角，為被邊緣化的沉默者發聲；在其挑戰如英國帝國主義和美國國族主義等具種族中心本質的普世規範之時，並非單純以多元主義為目標。森絲的世界主義在關切不平等的國際和跨文化關係的同時，也深入洞悉個人、國家與其他在地身分的變化，此舉可從她以微觀社會的觀點對巴基斯坦境內伊斯蘭基本教義派、分裂的忠誠與民族主義、以及性別政治的內省反思中看出。森絲的作品最終弔詭地顯示了世界主義的核心不是越界流動，而是反身的自我理解，以此為基礎才來建立起與世界的批判性連結。