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This paper explores the concept of betrayal in Hanif Kureishi’s The Black Album by relating it to the ethical development of that concept in the works of Delueze and Guattari. The protagonist Shahid, whose name means “martyr,” ironically becomes a traitor by turning away from his Pakistani Muslim community when he forms a deep personal bond with his white British teacher Deedee. As a result, Shahid is violently attacked by his Muslim friends. Shahid’s betrayal is punished and cursed as an immoral deed by his own community. But the question raised here is cru- cial: is betrayal in itself always evil? Challenging traditional assumptions on this matter, Deleuze and Guattari argue that being a traitor may have an ethical role in relation to one’s community. A traitor, whether he belongs in a minority or a majority social group (of race, nation and reli- gion), has the “power” to shake free from the given rules and discourse of his society and is thereby able to embrace singularity of his life. Reflecting back on The Black Album, we can question more carefully whether Shahid’s betrayal is to be understood as an ethical act. It is my central contention here that Shahid is open to what Deleuze and Guattari call the ethics of life, and that in exile from his community he is able to realize himself as a nomad with the power to affect a transformation in the dynamic set of relations that pertain between various social groups.
