BEYOND THE CANON: INTERSECTIONAL APPROACHES TO KAMILA SHAMSIE’S KARTOGRAPHY

Abstract

This study investigates how ethnic conflict, class stratification, and gendered subjectivity intersect in Kamila Shamsie’s Kartography (2002) and demonstrates how an intersectional reading challenges canonical postcolonial narratives that treat these axes of identity in isolation. Employing an interdisciplinary framework that integrates Kimberlé Crenshaw’s intersectionality, postcolonial concepts from Homi Bhabha and Gayatri Spivak, and feminist perspectives from Judith Butler and bell hooks, the analysis reveals that Kartography resists singular interpretations of postcolonial identity by foregrounding female subjectivity, interrogating collective memory, and examining the precarious relationship between love and friendship. The novel demonstrates that ethnic violence cannot be separated from class privilege, that female agency remains conditional upon intersecting axes of power, and that intimacy is always mediated by political conflict and historical trauma. The study concludes that Shamsie’s novel expands the literary canon by illustrating how intersectional methodologies enrich our understanding of both the text and its socio-political context.