The Reluctant Fundamentalist Lecture on Entire Novel

This PowerPoint features a voice recording on every slide totalling approximatley an hour and a half. This resource is designed to teach A Level students about the novel so they can write about Mohsin Hamid’s The Reluctant Fundamentalist for their Literature coursework. The lecture is detailed, nuanced and insightful. It covers postcolonial theory, detailed analysis of literary techniques, historical contexts and refers to literary critics.

Part one covers:
Narrative voice
The relationship between the speaker and the addressee
Foreshadowing
Unpicking assumptions
Unreliability of narration

Part two covers:
How ‘Otherness’ relates to colonialism
Orientalism and fetishization of the ‘Other’
Symbolism in the characters
Orientalism following 9/11
Motif of Changez’s beard

Part three covers:
Changez’s response to 9/11
Changez’s relationship with America
Geo-political context
Irony