In
The Black Album(1995), his second novel, Hanif Kureishi revisits territory familiar from his film-script,
My Beautiful Laundrette, and his first novel,
The Buddha of Suburbia. It is another
bildungsroman, following the affective and cultural-political development of a young British-Asian who has moved to London from Kent for further education. Like
Laundrette, it examines the 'state of the nation' during the Thatcher years, focusing particularly on relations between the races and the predicament of British youth. More specifically, it engages with the controversies surrounding the imposition of the
fatwaon Salman Rushdie in 1989. Like
The Buddha,
The Black Albumis much preoccupied by popular culture, and pop music more specifically. Indeed, the novel takes its title from an album by…
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Citation: Moore-Gilbert, Bart. "The Black Album". The Literary Encyclopedia. First published 30 June 2002 [https://www.litencyc.com/php/sworks.php?rec=true&UID=1448, accessed 23 November 2024.]
