SPATIAL POLITICS IN NADEEM ASLAM’S THE WASTED VIGIL AND THE BLIND MAN’S GARDEN A THESIS SUBMITTED TO THE GRADUATE SCHOOL OF SOCIAL SCIENCES OF MIDDLE EAST TECHNICAL UNIVERSITY BY GÜLSEVİN GÜLERYÜZ KARA IN PARTIAL FULFILLMENT OF THE REQUIREMENTS FOR THE DEGREE OF MASTER OF ARTS IN ENGLISH LITERATURE SEPTEMBER 2018 ii I hereby declare that all information in this document has been obtained and presented in accordance with academic rules and ethical conduct. I also declare that, as required by these rules and conduct, I have fully cited and referenced all material and results that are not original to this work. Name, Last Name : Gülsevin GÜLERYÜZ KARA Signature : iii ABSTRACT SPATIAL POLITICS IN NADEEM ASLAM’S THE WASTED VIGIL AND THE BLIND MAN’S GARDEN GÜLERYÜZ KARA, Gülsevin M.A. in English Literature Supervisor: Assist. Prof. Dr. Hülya YILDIZ BAĞÇE September 2018, 175 pages This thesis aims to analyze British-Pakistani author Nadeem Aslam’s novels The Wasted Vigil (2008) and The Blind Man’s Garden (2013) in terms of how Afghanistan and Pakistan are represented and reconfigured as postcolonial spaces. In the spirit aspired by Sara Upstone’s concept of post-space which suggests a sense of spatiality that resists imperial totalizations of space, subverts colonial frames and puts forward spatial reconfigurations by foregrounding diverse experiences of postcolonial spaces, this study essentially focuses on the post-space representations embedded in these novels. Challenging nation as a political construct and reframing it through alternative spatial locations, Aslam’s novels analysed in this study subtly reconfigure national spaces by accentuating smaller-than-national and larger-than national spaces. These alternative spatial locations vary from physical spaces like home, school, garden, to conceptual spaces such as microstories, neglected cultural and natural spaces and journey. The Wasted Vigil and The Blind Man’s Garden stand out as two prominent examples of ‘war-on-terror’ fiction that deals with socio-political and psychological complexities of post-9/11 period. Thus reframing national spaces the way these novels together suggest also undermines the post- iv 9/11 discourse that feeds on essentialist national stereotypes and binaries, and invites the reader to rethink the mainstream Anglo-American representation of Afghanistan and Pakistan. Keywords: Postcolonial Space, post-space, “War-on-Terror” Fiction, The Wasted Vigil, The Blind Man’s Garden v ÖZ NADEEM ASLAM’IN VİRAN ÜLKENİN BEKÇİSİ VE KÖR ADAMIN BAHÇESİ ROMANLARINDAKİ UZAMSAL POLİTİKALAR GÜLERYÜZ KARA, Gülsevin Yüksek Lisans Tezi, İngiliz Edebiyatı Tez Yöneticisi: Dr. Öğr. Üyesi Hülya YILDIZ BAĞÇE September 2014, 175 Sayfa Bu tez Pakistan asıllı İngiliz yazar Nadeem Aslam’ın Viran Ülkenin Bekçisi (2008) ve Kör Adamın Bahçesi (2013) kitaplarını, Afganistan ve Pakistan’ın postkolonyal uzamlar olarak temsilleri ve yeniden kurgulanışları bakımından inceler. Teorik çerçeve olarak Sara Upstone’un uzam-sonrası (post-space) kavramını esas alır, ki bu kavram farklı postkolonyal uzam deneyimlerini öne çıkartarak emperyalizmin uzamsal totalizasyonlara karşı koyan ve kolonyal çerçeveleri yıkıp yeniden kurgulanışlar öne süren bir uzamsallık ifade eder. Romanlardaki uzam-sonrası temsillerinin bu doğrultuda incelenmesi bu çalışmanın odağını teşkil eder. Politik bir kurgu olan ulusal uzam sorgulanırken, alternatif uzamsal alanlar üzerinden yeni bir çerçeve çizilmesi amaçlanır. Aslam’ın bu romanları romanları ulusal-uzamdan-küçük ve ulusal-uzamdan-büyük alanları ön plana çıkartarak ulusal uzamı incelikli bir yeniden şekillendirmeye tabi tutar. Ulusu indirgeyici nitelikteki tasvirlere direnç gösteren bu alternatif uzamlar ev, okul ve bahçe gibi küçük fiziksel uzamların yanı sıra küçük-anlatılar, ihmal edilmiş doğal ve kültürel uzamlar gibi kavramsal küçük uzamlar ile ulusal-uzamdan-büyük bir alanı işaret eden seyahat motifini de kapsar. Viran Ülkenin Bekçisi ve Kör Adamın vi Bahçesi 11 Eylül sonrası sosyo-politik karışıklıklarını ele alan terör edebiyatının öne çıkan iki örneğidir. Bu romanların işaret ettiği doğrultuda ulusu yeniden çerçevelendirilmesi, özcü ulusal klişeleri ve ikilikleri besleyen 11 Eylül sonrası söylemlerinin temelini aşındırırken okuyucuyu Afganistan ve Pakistan’ın ana akım Anglo-Amerikan tasvirlerini yeniden düşünmeye davet eder. Anahtar Kelimeler: Postkolonyal Uzam, uzam-sonrası (post-space), 11 Eylül Sonrası Terör Edebiyatı, Viran Ülkenin Bekçisi, Kör Adamın Bahçesi vii To Zeynep Berrin, My Little Sunshine viii ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS I am indebted to many people for their support during the writing of this thesis. First of all, I am very grateful to my supervisor Assist. Prof. Dr. Hülya Yıldız Bağçe for her constructive feedback that always guided me in the right direction and her unwavering encouragement and support. I will always feel privileged to be one of her students. I thank my jury members Assist. Prof. Dr. Elif Öztabak Avcı and Assist. Prof. Dr. Mustafa Kırcı whose invaluable advices during my proposal jury helped me start off confidently. Friendship has made completing this thesis easier. I owe a great debt of gratitude to my ex-housemate Pelin who cared for me almost like a mother when I was overwhelmed by having a full-time job and doing my MA at the same time and did not have a minute to cook or clean. Thank you for your unconditional love and support. I feel blessed for having such a true friend. Misery loves company, and this is true especially in the academia. Betül, my soulmate, thank you for sustaining me in many ways from patiently listening to my whinings and adding humour to the exhausting process of thesis writing to motivating me countless times to keep going and providing me with sources I couldn’t find from all the way from the U.S. I feel very lucky to get to know Ahmetcan, my dear Bilkenter, who has been there to help me overcome the dead- ends of my research and share his invaluable insights into our common research topic. Finally, to my husband, Sencer, a mere ‘thank you’ is not enough. This thesis could not have been completed without your unconditional love and constant support. You have made my life easier and better since the day I met you. Not just for this thesis, I know you will always be there for me. ix TABLE OF CONTENTS PLAGIARISM ........................................................................................................ iii ABSTRACT ........................................................................................................... iv ÖZ ........................................................................................................................... vi DEDICATION ..................................................................................................... viii ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS ................................................................................... ix TABLE OF CONTENTS ........................................................................................ x LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS .............................................................................. xiii CHAPTER 1. INTRODUCTION ............................................................................................... 1 1.1. The Aim of the Study ............................................................................... 1 1.2. Methodology and the Frame of the Study ................................................ 2 1.2.1. Postcolonial Space and Sara Upstone’s Concept of Post-Space ............ 3 1.2.2. Space-Place Distinction ..................................................................... 10 1.2.3. Nation as Space ................................................................................... 12 1.3. The Wasted Vigil and The Blind Man’s Garden as Contemporary Examples of Postcolonial Literature .................................................................. 14 1.3.1. Postcolonialism and ‘War on Terror’ Fiction .................................. 17 1.4. An Overview of Nadeem Aslam ............................................................. 21 1.4.1. Aslam as a Postcolonial Migrant Writer ......................................... 21 1.4.2. Aslam and Politics ........................................................................... 26 1.4.3. Aslam’s Literary Style ..................................................................... 29 2. SPATIAL POLITICS IN THE WASTED VIGIL ............................................... 34 2.1. National Space at the Crossroad of Ideologies: Spatial Reality of The Wasted Vigil’s Afghanistan ........................................................................ 34 2.1.1. Non-Fictional Background of the Novel .............................................. 35 2.1.2. Space and the Soviet Invasion of Afghanistan ..................................... 38 x 2.1.3. Islamic Fundamentalism and Its Spatial Politics ................................. 41 2.1.4. American Neo-Imperialism, “War-on-Terror” and National Space .... 47 2.2. Reconfiguration of National Space: Subversion of Nation-Bound Space through Post-Space Representations ....................................................... 54 2.2.1. Smaller Spaces Greater Possibilities: Personal Spaces as Small Scale ............................................................................................................... 55 2.2.1.1. Marcus’s House ............................................................................. 56 2.2.1.2. Zameen’s Apartment ....................................................................