The Representation of Babu’s Search for Self-Identity: A Reading of Numair Atif Choudhury’s Babu Bangladesh

Abstract

The aim of this paper is to reflect Babu’s search for self-identity which is represented in Numair Atif Choudhury’s fictional novel Babu Bangladesh. By analyzing the novel Babu Bangladesh, this study examines how Choudhury shows the public and private question in Babu’s journey by using magic realism, duality, landscape scenarios in the Postmodern context. It also attempts to find how Babu’s life is parallel with the rise of the national history of Bangladesh. Contrary to the fact that Babu played the role of a politician and adventurer, dualism is reflected in his search for an individual identity in both Bangladeshi context in case of his search for his own identity as well. This reading of Choudhury’s novel Babu Bangladesh respectively questions how Choudhury shows the public and private quest in Babu’s journey. Babu Bangladesh can be compared to the famous theory of Franz Roh by using Magic realism to differentiate between reality and imagination. Babu Bangladesh can be compared with the writings of Haruki Murakami, Gabriel Garcia Marquez, V.S. Naipaul and Salman Rushdie.