Self-Othering in the novel Karachi You Are Killing Me

Abstract

The politics of binary opposition self/Other; colonialist language construes the dichotomy to sustain the dominancy over colonized. The same dichotomy is inscribed differently in post-colonial discourse. Lisa Lu named it re-orientalism (2009). Saba Imtiaz’s Karachi you are killing me (2014) plays with the Orientalist formula by employing constructed colonialist ideology. This novel employs different layers of irony in an attempt to confirm the condition and stereotypes associated with Karachi in Particular and Pakistan in general. The present study discussed how the repacking of the Orients is processed in the novel for international consumption. Re-Orientalizing resulted in the exoticism of popular cultural values and the self othering, employing re-Orientalizing strategies. It is concluded that prevailing clichés about Orients are reinforced in the novel.