Liminal Transformation in the Rites of Passage: Identity Fluidity in Mohsin Hamid’s The Reluctant Fundamentalist

Abstract

In the novel The Reluctant Fundamentalist, Mohsin Hamid, the 2017 Booker Prize winner, employs a transnational narrative to explore the fluidity of liminal identity. The protagonist, Changez, embarks on a journey from Lahore to Princeton for education, then works at a top global investment bank, and ultimately returns to his homeland in search of self-redefinition. This multi-layered experience mirrors the three stages of the rites of passage proposed by Arnold van Gennep: separation, liminality, and reintegration. Confronted with fragmented memories of domestic space, disciplinary violence in urban environments, and identity struggles within psychological realms, Changez navigates his growth crisis through ritualistic practices that ultimately resolve transitional identity conflicts and reconstruct a cohesive identity. Hamid metaphorically reflects evolving East-West relations through the subtly shifting dynamics between Changez and an American traveler in the Lahore teahouse. The novel not only reveals the marginality and heterogeneity of transnational identities but also interrogates the construction and negotiation of liminal identities within multicultural intersections.