Globalization and Discourse on Terror: Hari Kunzru’s Transmission as post 9/11 Fiction

Abstract

The study analyzes Hari Kunzru’s (b. 1969) novel Transmission (2004) as a post
9/11 text. Although there are no direct references to the events of 9/11, the
novel is analogous to the counter-discourses against post 9/11 popular
discourses on terror. The theoretical framework of the study is based on
Baudrillard’s critique of 9/11 as presented in his 2001 essay “The Spirit of
Terrorism” which contends that 9/11 attacks were symbolic of a reaction
against globalization and its negative impact on the third world. The terrorists
retaliated against global neo-imperialism and ironically used the same means of
globalization in the form of modern technology to wage a war against the selfproclaimed superpower, the USA. Since both Arjun Mehta and Leela Zahir, the
protagonists of the novel, are labelled as terrorists, the post 9/11 discourse on
terror as presented by the West and its counter-discourse as presented by the
Western ‘other’ will be examined at length through a close reading of the text.
Arjun Mehta, a budding computer programmer, struggles to eradicate his
poverty for a secure future but is marked as a terrorist that makes him end up
as a fugitive. Similarly, Leela Zahir, a promising actress with the prospects of
touching the pinnacles of fame, is devastated because of being associated with
computer generated virus. The novel is counter-discursive to the creation of
the tag ‘terrorist’ through exposing the role of unequal distribution of wealth,
opportunities and security in a globalized world in the making of terrorists
(real or simulated), hence corresponding to 9/11 discourses. The paper
concludes that the novel is a critique of globalization as a source of terror in the
new millennium through the use of media and technology.