The Black Album1976

Hanif Kureishi

“Arresting…compassionate and illuminating”

• “Thinks are looking real bad at the moment. Now. Let me check to see you got The Black Album. He peered interestedly into the box again. Not many people have.”

Characters• Shahid-the protagonist of the novel , the son of Pakistani immigrants. A boy who has to choose

between his love for DeeDee and his culture.• Riaz Al-Husein-is one of the major characters and the leader of a fundamentalis group of Moslems.• DeeDee Osgood-is a main character. She is Shahid’s teacher and they secretly have an affair.• Dr. Brownlow-DeeDee’s husband and also a college teacher for history in a minor London University.• Chili Hasan-a tall man eith black hair and dark skin,is from Pakistani origin and Shahid’s older

brother.• Zulma-is Chili’s wife and she’s a clever and talented woman.• Hat-is also a student and a member of the Islamic group of Riaz.• Chad-is a kind of bodyguard and protector of Riaz.• Tahira-is a minor character and she also belongs to the group that Riaz formed.

Shahid and the society

The city would feel like this; he wouldn´t be excluded. There had to be ways in which he could belong.”

• “I began to be scared of going into certain places. I did not know what they were thinking. I became paranoid. I would not go out. I knew I was confunsed. But I didn´t know what to do.”

“Everywhere I went I was the only dark-skinned person.”

• ” The point about stereotypes is that, in spite of their banality, in spite of their seemingly wrongness, they work. They have effects. They are at work in Britain today. And they are hard to combat, because nobody readily admits to being influenced by them.”

Sexual identity

1.”Thinking of her was like listening to his favorite music; she was a tune he liked to play”. ( p. 130)

.”But you're in a funny mood. When you've been with your friends your mouth curls down”.( 152)

”People came and went, but he was the only person there with dark skin. That would be the

fact in most places he went with Deedee.” ( p. 122)

”Until it stops being fun, she said. Until then, he said”.( p. 276)

Religious identity

• Where did Shahid belong? • “HE BELIEVED EVERYTHING, HE BELIEVED NOTHING