A Consolidating Imperialist Ideology: The New Great Game in Nadeem Aslam’s The Wasted Vigil

Abstract

The article examines The Wasted Vigil, a post-9/11 novel by  Nadeem Aslam to find out how the writer articulates imperialist ideology in his composition. The study reveals that the writer internalizes the imperialist discourses on the war in Afghanistan and becomes a voice of the imperialist powers by consolidating their ideology. Some of the ideologies that the novel incorporates are Western cultural supremacy, fear of the ‘evil empire’, mystic East, human rights violation, stereotyping, Islamophobia, patriarchy, white man’s burden, rehabilitation and political economy. Inspired by the theories of Said, Dabashi, and Chomsky, the paper approves that the writer, obliterating some ground realities, extends on the persistent misrepresentation of the local culture and stereotypes the war-affected people of Afghanistan as established by the imperialists during the New Great Game.