RACE CONSCIOUSNESS, THE AUDACITY OF EQUALITY, AND TRANSCULTURAL CRITICISM IN HASAN MINHAJ’S HOMECOMING KING
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.12795/REN.2021.i25.13Abstract
Cultural and economic globalization has produced a ‘digimodern’ diasporic individual cohabiting multiple time-spaces in the twenty-first century. Identity development theories based on traditional notions of multiculturalism are no longer pertinent to second-generation immigrants. Based on Jeff Lewis’ (2002) concept of ‘transculturalism’ which amalgamates political aesthetics with cultural civics, this article critically analyzes the emergence of transcultural personhood in South Asian Muslim Americans, as depicted in the Netflix stand-up comedy special Homecoming King hosted by Hasan Minhaj. The article explores key concepts of transculturalism in the narration of deeply personal anecdotes built around the themes of inequality, racial injustice, and intergenerational acceptance and Minhaj’s vision of a new Brown America that allows a possibility to its transcultural inhabitants to possess multiple hybrid identities.
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Accepted 2021-10-07
Published 2021-12-20
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