ABSTRACT
This chapter explores Hari Kunzru’s major novels, focusing particularly on his self-conscious and consistent use of parody to portray a relentless and, at times, frightening but exhilarating globalised postmodern society, one often portrayed as a product of erstwhile European empires. According to Murat Aydemir, Kunzru’s novel troubles the potentially defiant and celebratory politics of Bhabha’s theory of ‘hybridity’ through the racist and purist ideologies purveyed by the Indian characters. In 2013, Kunzru publishes Memory Palace, a 10,000 word novella specially commissioned by the Victoria and Albert Museum in London which in turn inspired 20 international multimedia artists who created works for the museum’s exhibition ‘Sky Arts Ignition: Memory Palace’. White Tears ‘starts as a satire about the search for authenticity’ as Kunzru introduces two white college graduate music geeks, Carter Wallace and Seth, who obsess with recapturing the ‘authentic’ sound of blues music.
