MIDDLE EASTERNERS AS NEOCOLONIAL NOMADS: NEOCOLONIAL DETERRITORIALIZATION OF MIDDLE EASTERNERS IN MOHSIN HAMID'S THE RELUCTANT FUNDAMENTALIST AND EXIT WEST.

Neocolonialism amounts to the contemporary practices conducted by imperialists to exploit underdeveloped countries after decolonization. Initially, neocolonialists performed indirect methods, such as economic and logistic support to the monarchs or governments and radical groups that were heavily influenced by political Islam, in the Middle East, but it has then evolved into an extreme form through direct military interventions after the 9/11 terrorist attacks. The study argues that those practices have dislocated Middle Easterners, and their dislocations are associated with the unfixity of identities. Grounding on Deleuze and Guattarian nomadology and identifying their dislocations as neocolonial deterritorialization, the study examines the changes Middle Easterners experience due to their exposure to the factors in neocolonial spaces and in new territories. In this regard, tthe study aims to analyse the deterritorializing impacts of neocolonialism on Middle Easterner immigrants in Mohsin Hamid's The Reluctant Fundamentalist and Exit West. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]