H. M. Naqvi’s Home Boy as a Response to Post-9/11 Islamophobia and as Implicit Critique of Mohsin Hamid’s The Reluctant Fundamentalist

Western fiction about the 9/11 attacks tends to center white American experiences and perspectives reinforce dominant stereotypes misconceptions Muslims, especially Muslim men. Counter-discursive post-9/11 from a cosmopolitan perspective that seeks intervene in these modes of representation inevitably has contend with globally epistemological frameworks suspicion. While Mohsin Hamid’s The Reluctant Fundamentalist (2007) is among most well-known such counter-discursive fictions, this article focuses on H. M. Naqvi’s less novel Home Boy (2009) argue constitutes postcolonial response 9/11, an explicit critique ensuing Islamophobia, tactical alternative implicit novel. highlights some problems created by narrative strategies Hamid uses shows how Naqvi takes different approach, particular foregoing temptations ambiguity gender stereotyping highlighting multiple traumas experienced Muslims its aftermath. In so doing, suggests critical readers can recognize both drawbacks celebrated possibilities other writers use address neo-Orientalism global Islamophobia.