Representation of the East as Both a Real and Imaginary place Daisy van der Post College

In ‘The Buddha of Suburbia’ Kureishi utilizes Orientalist perspectives and textual attitudes in a multitude of manners in order to reflect how the meanings associated with the Orientalist's imagined ‘East’ shapes characters world-views and world experiences. Kureishi’s vast array of motifs and themes throughout the novel – that of the stage as a space for the dramatization and reflection of race relationships, that of the ‘Oriental’ characters’ struggle against Orientalist’s Eurocentric sense of superiority, the means by which characters utilize Orientalist attitudes and perspectives for their own means – provide substantial scope for analysis, whilst always ‘adding just enough satirical top-spin to keep us guessing as to [his] attitude towards’ (Kureishi 179) the issues inherent in Orientalism, and his intentions behind writing a text that explores these themes both explicitly, and implicitly.

The various instances of performance within Karim’s acting career can be seen to not only reflect the performative nature of race and racial tensions within the world outside the theatre, but to also establish the stage as an arena for exploring and reflecting such issues. In Karim’s first play, ‘The Jungle Book’, he is cast as Kipling’s...