Journal of Studies in Language, Culture and Society (JSLCS)

Poethical Pedagogy Of Global Citizenship Imaginaries In Contemporary Transnational Fiction: The Case Of Mohsin Hamid’s Exit West

Auteurs : Bentahar Soumia . Guellil Assia .

Résumé

Context: This paper performs a multidisciplinary reading of contemporary transnational fiction by investigating how Mohsi Hamid’s Exit West (2017) fashions educational imaginaries of global citizenship through a distinctive ‘poethical’ sensibility. It argues that Hamid’s narrative form, with its portals, suspended geographies, and tonal dissonances, generates an experiential mode of learning attentive to the pressures of displacement and the instability of global life. Problematic: It rests on the premise that inherited pedagogical ideals, particularly those undergirded by assumptions of clarity and edification, tumble when confronted with the volatile landscapes shaping the contemporary world. Objectives: It aims to demonstrate how Hamid’s narrative forges a readerly apprenticeship grounded in perceptual recalibration, ethical vigilance, and decolonial unlearning. It further seeks to delineate how the novel assumes the function of an instructional medium that rethinks global citizenship beyond abstract cosmopolitan norms. Methodology: The analysis draws on decolonial thought, poethical theory, narrative-formal studies, and global ethical critiques to inform a close reading of Exit West. This multidisciplinary framework probes how the novel’s poethical strategies problematize habitual interpretive certainties and lay bare the inequities embedded in discourses of openness, hospitality, and integration. Results: The interpretation reveals that the novel cultivates an instructional space in which the reader is compelled to dwell within uncertainty, opacity, and the uneven dynamics of mobility. These narrative pressures polish forms of discernment attuned to vulnerability, asymmetrical risk, and the complex textures of transnational precarity, hence casting fiction as a site of perceptual and ethical formation. Conclusion: Exit West stands as a paradigmatic model of contemporary transnational fiction that opens onto a pedagogical horizon, for it consubstantiates the pedagogical possibilities inherent in narrative form and re-envisions global citizenship as a practice shaped through scrupulous, critically responsive reading. Contribution: Accentuating how Hamid’s narrative strategies compel readers to navigate instability and the ethical demands of transnational mobility, the paper contends that such fiction furnishes an analytically and pedagogically model whose relevance extends well beyond the realm of fiction, offering internationally transferable insights for scholars and educators seeking to cultivate critically resilient forms of global citizenship in diverse educational and cultural contexts.

Mots clés

Decolonial unlearning ; Global citizenship imaginary ; Narrative form ; Poethical pedagogy ; Transnational fiction