A COMPARATIVE ANALYSIS OF URBAN ALIENATION IN SHAMSIE’S KARTOGRAPHY AND FATIMA’S HOW IT HAPPENED

Abstract

The theme of urban alienation is a central issue in modern literature as it is in contemporary times, the urban areas seem to be characterized by the multifaceted nature and the emotional distancing of the people in the fast changing urban environments. The study provides a comparative discussion of the urban alienation in Kamila Shamsie’s Katrography (2001) and Shazaf Fatima’s How It Happened (2012).  Main aim is to investigate the ways in which the texts represent the psychological and social seclusion that the characters experience in the metropolitan settings, even though the cultural and contextual variations are present. The study applies a qualitative approach to analyze the selected works in terms of primary textual data through the prism of the psycho- geographic theory proposed by Guy Debord (1995) that centers on the themes of displacement, identity crisis, and marginalization. The findings indicate that although Shamsie concentrates in the disintegrated self and cultural hybridity within the urban space, Fatima locates the systemic social exclusion and individual trauma as the products of alienation. Taken together, these stories reflect the intricacies of urban alienation and bring valuable insights into how the urban life can inform personal experiences and identities in the South Asian diasporic context.