Dispelling the Notion of West: A Parallel Study of Exit West and Meem Mashriq, Meem Maghrib

Abstract

Art in any form be it fiction or painting encapsulates the nuances of the socio-political aspects of the era in which it is produced. Every art form presents semblance in few of the themes, despite using different mediums but there lies a commonality among them. The present paper is an attempt to draw a commonality of themes in Pakistani art. A parallel study has been done of Exit West and collection of painting Meem Mashriq, Meem Maghrib. Both forms of art enumerate a contemporary socio-political concern of the world i.e diaspora. Therefore, through a parallel study, the aspects of diaspora are explored. For this, the approach of diasporic criticism by Sudesh Mishra is employed. Mohsin Hamid has raised the problems of the migrants by presenting a trajectory of events from the beginning of the conflict to the migration and returning to homeland. Laila Rehman also captures the problems through an intricate colour scheme of red, black and blue in her paintings. Migrants despite being part of the host land receive few of the fundamental rights but are unable to resonate with the social fabric of that state. Although, the current trend is to migrate from East towards West, Hamid and Rehman emphasize on the hollowness of West. Thus, the sense of belonging to homeland prevails in both the works by dispelling the notion of West.

Keywords: Dispelling, Sense of loss, diaspora, trauma