Literary Activism against Drones: Aesthetics of Clarity, Confusion, and Empathy in Mohsin Hamid’s Fiction

• Published in: The international journal of literary humanities 2022, Vol.20 (2), p.151-163
• Main Authors: Liaqat, Qurratulaen, Raza, Amra
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Aesthetics; Empathy; Fiction; Poetics; Politics; Racism; Subjectivity
• ISSN: 2327-7912; 2327-8676
• DOI: 10.18848/2327-7912/CGP/v20i02/151-163

The analysis of “drone fiction” from the perspective of Literary Activism yields valuable insights into the configuration of this newly emerging genre and constitutes a unique theoretical paradigm to interpret the motif of the “drone.” Drawing on insights from Literary Activism theoretical approaches, the exploration describes how Mohsin Hamid’s fiction prompts critically informed analysis about the political aesthetics of drone fiction. It also demonstrates that imaginative accounts of dronized societies by Hamid are potential sites to study two main core aesthetics of clarity and confusion often associated with the poetics of Literary Activism. Moreover, this study posits that Hamid also employs the “aesthetics of empathy” to accentuate the political and affective resonance of his drone texts. Thus, drone subjectivity emerges as a posthuman inhuman machine, racist predator, panoptic eye, imperialist mass murderer, a proponent of psychological suffering, and perpetrator of the violation of human rights. The drone in Hamid’s fiction has been used as a trope for literary activism, which represents multiple unjust and unfair tendencies in global politics at this historical juncture. Hence, Hamid’s drone fiction acts as an aesthetic conduit to engage in protest against drone technology and provides new perspectives on its repercussions and implications for non-Western societies.