Mohsin Hamid's War on Error: The Reluctant Fundamentalist as a Post-Truth Novel

CounterText ◽  
2018 ◽  
Vol 4 (2) ◽  
pp. 256-280
Author(s):  
Nazry Bahrawi
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
United Kingdom ◽  
Political Discourse ◽  
The United States ◽  
Alternative Interpretation ◽  
Presidential Campaign ◽  
Close Reading ◽  
The Novel ◽  
The United Kingdom ◽  
Historical Text

In contemporary political discourse, the term ‘post-truth’ denotes rhetorical techniques often directed at garnering popular support. Post-truth techniques were, for instance, said to have characterised Donald Trump's presidential campaign in the United States as well as the Brexit lobby in the United Kingdom. This article proposes an alternative interpretation of ‘post-truth’, approaching it as a challenge to dominant systems of knowledge expressed through literary narratives. This essay puts forward a consideration of ‘decolonial post-truth’ as a rhetorical technique inspired by Walter Mignolo's concept of decoloniality. In so doing, it engages with the countertextual through the ways in which literariness travels from the novel into everyday politics. Seeking to demonstrate the workings of decolonial post-truth through a close reading of Mohsin Hamid's The Reluctant Fundamentalist (2007), the essay positions the novel as a counter-historical text that challenges the truisms that breathe life into 9/11 Islamophobia.

Down Girl

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Kate Manne
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
African American ◽  
United Kingdom ◽  
African American Women ◽  
Police Officer ◽  
Public Life ◽  
The United States ◽  
Presidential Campaign ◽  
Criminal Records ◽  
The United Kingdom

What is misogyny? And (why) is it still occurring? This book explores the logic of misogyny, conceived in terms of the hostilities women face because they are living in a man’s world, or one that has been until recently. It shows how misogyny may persist in cultures in which its existence is routinely denied—including the United States, Australia, and the United Kingdom, which are often alleged to be post-patriarchal. Not so, Down Girl argues. Misogyny has rather taken particular forms following the advent of legal equality, obligating women to be moral “givers,” and validating a sense of entitlement among her privileged male counterparts. Many of rape culture’s manifestations are canvassed—from the ubiquitous entreaty “Smile, sweetheart!” to Donald Trump’s boasts of grabbing women by the “pussy,” which came to light during his successful 2016 presidential campaign; from the Isla Vista killings in California to the police officer in Oklahoma who preyed on African American women with criminal records, sexually assaulting them in the knowledge they would have little legal recourse; from the conservative anti-abortion movement to online mobbings of women in public life, deterring the participation therein of all but the most privileged and well-protected. It is argued on this basis that misogyny often takes the form of taking from her what she is (falsely) held to owe him, and preventing her from competing for positions of masculine-coded power and authority. And he, in turn, may be held to owe her little.

scholarly journals A Comparative Discussion of the Judicial Disqualification of Directors under the South African Companies Act

2020 ◽  
pp. 1-24
Author(s):  
Rehana Cassim
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
United Kingdom ◽  
South African ◽  
United States Of America ◽  
The United States ◽  
The South ◽  
The United Kingdom ◽  
Locus Standi

Abstract Section 162 of the South African Companies Act 71 of 2008 empowers courts to declare directors delinquent and hence to disqualify them from office. This article compares the judicial disqualification of directors under this section with the equivalent provisions in the United Kingdom, Australia and the United States of America, which have all influenced the South African act. The article compares the classes of persons who have locus standi to apply to court to disqualify a director from holding office, as well as the grounds for the judicial disqualification of a director, the duration of the disqualification, the application of a prescription period and the discretion conferred on courts to disqualify directors from office. It contends that, in empowering courts to disqualify directors from holding office, section 162 of the South African Companies Act goes too far in certain respects.

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