Flesh, Flow, and the Molar Machine: A Schizoanalytic Deconstruction of Whiteness in Mohsin Hamid’s The Last White Man

Abstract

This study provides a comprehensive schizoanalytic deconstruction of Mohsin Hamid’s The Last White Man (2022), framing the novel's central racial metamorphosis as a profound deterritorialization of the "molar" identity of whiteness. Utilizing the theoretical framework of Deleuze and Guattari, the study explores how the sudden shift in phenotype shatters the "whiteness machine," opening the subject to the fluidities of a "body without organs" (BwO) characterized by constant metamorphosis. The close analysis investigates the subsequent "reactionary reterritorialization" of the social body, wherein the collapse of racial boundaries triggers militant aggression and a paranoid defense of established norms. By mapping the "lines of flight" that emerge through characters’ somatic ruptures, the article positions Hamid’s narrative as a "literary clinic" that diagnoses the pathologies of racial supremacy and proposes a "critical optimism" toward a rhizomatic future. Ultimately, the study concludes that the novel serves as a site of "imaginative resistance," enabling a collective movement toward a non-hierarchical, "pluralistic form" of identity.