Navigating Adaptation and Resistance: A Social Darwinist Reading of Hanif Kureishi’s The Buddha of Suburbia and My Son the Fanatic

Abstract

This research paper explores the manifestation of Social Darwinism in Hanif Kureishi's seminal works The Buddha of Suburbia and My Son the Fanatic. Grounded in the theoretical framework of Social Darwinism as articulated by thinkers such as Herbert Spencer, Max Weber, and William Graham Sumner, the paper investigates how characters negotiate survival through strategies of adaptation and resistance in multicultural Britain. Employing a qualitative textual analysis method, the study reveals that Kureishi uses his protagonists to analyze the social structures shaped by Darwinian ideologies, illustrating the psychological and sociocultural costs of conformity and dissent.