Analysing Socio-Political Overdetermination in Kamila Shamsie’s Burnt Shadows

This paper explores whether and to what extent various fictional elements such as plot and locale have been overdetermined by the employed author in view of the socio-political context(s) of late. The study presents an in-depth analysis of how the employed author of Burnt Shadows (2009) gets the narrative conditioned within the prevalent global political contexts and dominant/popular discourses. This has been done through a close textual reading/analysis of the novel while concentrating on the way the author situates the narrative in the contemporary political backdrop and exploits the narrative in so doing. The paper draws from Huggan’s concept of “postcolonial exotic”—which problematizes the so-called “global commodification” of postcolonial works. The study explores and analyses the construction of the plot as well as the exploitation of narrative devices by the author while relying on the close textual reading of the novel. In the end, the findings of the study detail the ways of the fictional objectification with reference to the text.