Abstract

The article addresses the issue of conflict between different cultures through the debut novels of the Pakistani-born English writer Hanif Kureishi. Following Achille Mbembe’s theory on the historical phases of racism, the analysis sheds light on some aspects related to the assignment of prejudice and the theme of the internalization of the discrimination, by investigating the difficult coexistence of profoundly different values in modern society, the relationship between blackness and Englishness, the nature of censorship and the adhesion to Islamic radicalism.