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Title RECIPROCITY OF ANGST AND FANATICISM: EXISTENTIAL-TERRORISTIC FEEDBACK LOOP IN NADEEM ASLAM’S SELECTED FICTION

Author(s) Rabia Basri Malik

Abstract Nadeem Aslam’s selected novels, The Wasted Vigil and The Blind Man’s Garden, represent war in Afghanistan. The latter text also depicts its effects on security situation in Pakistan. Set in post 9/11 world, the selected fiction highlights both objective and subjective violence. Barbarism is enacted by American involvement in Afghanistan as well as savage activities executed by terrorist organizations. The tumultuous circumstances exhibit exacerbated existential crisis in the selected texts. This renders the characters’ lives uncertain. In order to feel uncontested in such a scenario, the characters affiliate themselves with core defining principles of life. Cultural, religious, and political worldviews help set the codes. The predefined set of rules is largely offered by terrorist ideologies. In his novels, Aslam shows that ideological constructs are ferociously defended in the wake of trepidations. Thus, when imperiled, violence increases. This research invokes Megan McBride’s existential-terroristic feedback loop to investigate the role of fear of death in people’s desire to observe certain beliefs. Also, I have adapted McBride’s model to evaluate the reciprocity of angst and fundamentalism. I explore angst in the novels from Kierkegaard’s perspective. My project, thus, identifies that this relation remains uncharted, and attempts to fill this gap. This study is interpretive and exploratory in nature and is, therefore, qualitative. I have read my primary texts through Textual Analysis.

Type Thesis/Dissertation MS

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Department English

Language English

Publication Date 2019-06-20

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