Abstract
Jamima Khan’s What’s Love Got To Do With It is a significant hermeneutic narrative depicting a triadic nexus of postcolonialism, South Asian Islam and British culture. This cinematic narrative profoundly interprets the experiences of cultural tensions and civilizational clashes one is coming across at present both in Britain and postcolonial Muslim South Asia. The narrative is quite an accurate portrayal of the individual(s) as rational being(s) rooted in a specific religious tradition (Islam) transcending it to convert to the other cultural (British) tradition. With reference to the love-relationship between a British Muslim boy and a British Christian girl, it comically critically evaluates the social limitations, religious-cultural myopia, and emotional insensitivity of the match-making mechanism as an instrument to support the institution of marriage in South Asia. It shows the oppressive imposition of this hollow mechanism on human individuality as well as defines for Muslims a British brand cultural alternative of inspiration for and perseverance with love-relationship. Being a convert British Muslim artist, Jamima’s hermeneutic of the love-narrative reflects her own empathic approach to South Asian women. She narratively attempts to convince them of their conversion to the British culture of individual freedom and open-mindedness, divorcing from the South Asian culture of myopic collective oppression of women with specific reference to love and marriage. She depicts how comfortable this freedom from oppression may be in the context of British culture as well as how difficult this exercise is for an individual in the cultural nexus of postcolonial Muslim South Asia.
Details
Presentation Type
Paper Presentation in a Themed Session
Theme
Beyond Borders: The Role of the Humanities in Reimagining Communities
KEYWORDS
The Muslim-Christian Love-Narrative, A Convert British Muslim Artist
