Hanif Kureishi’s The Buddha of Suburbia and the Topic of Racism

Seminar paper from the year 2015 in the subject English Language and Literature Studies - Literature, grade: 1,3, University of Erfurt (Literaturwissenschaft), course: Multicultural Britain: Class & Ethnicity in Recent Fiction, language: English, abstract: I am interested to find out within Hanif Kureishi’s The Buddha of Suburbia if Kureishi made racism a topic in the novel and if it is intended or if he might think along different lines. To find an answer to these questions I will start with a definition of racism. Therefore, a short look into the history of the term will lead us to the current understanding of racism and the topics connected to it. When the understanding of racism within the bound of this work is defined, the work on the novel starts and I will quote different passages where racism becomes obvious. The third part of this work examines if Kureishi intended to write about racism or if it happened unintended. To find an answer for this part I will focus on Kureishi’s biography to find probable parallels, and at the society in London at the time, as well as the politics. After these three steps a conclusion will be drawn to answer the question of the beginning.