PHYSICAL, CULTURAL, AND EMOTIONAL BORDERS IN CONTEMPORARY MIGRANT LITERATURE: A COMPARATIVE STUDY OF AMITAV GHOSH’S THE SHADOW LINES AND MOHSIN HAMID’S EXIT WEST

Abstract

This conceptual paper around the idea of borders—physical, cultural, and emotional—as represented in contemporary migrant literature, with a specific focus on Amitav Ghosh’s The Shadow Lines and Mohsin Hamid’s Exit West. Drawing on border studies, migration theory, and postcolonial criticism, it argues that these novels destabilize conventional understandings of borders as fixed lines on a map and instead conceptualize them as fluid, imagined, and deeply embedded in personal and collective memory. The paper outlines how physical borders (nation‑states, passports, migration regimes), cultural borders (language, customs, religion), and emotional borders (belonging, estrangement, trauma) intersect to shape migrant subjectivities and narrative forms.