Hybridity, a major theme in postcolonial literature
Having dealt with the theme of gender (in a limited scope), in this
week's column, I wish to explore the spacious concept of hybridity in
relation to postcolonial literature. In essence, hybridity is an
every-day reality that we encounter in an increasingly multi-ethnic and
pluralistic society. Common heritage of most of the Asian and African
nations is that the heritage of colonialism. Colonialism, without doubt,
is an encounter between cultures, languages, people and system of
thought within the ambit in which the power is vested with the white
colonial masters. Colonial administration in Asian, African and South
American regions infused European form of thinking, European languages,
culture, education and way of life from food to sports into a native
'context'.
As theorised by postcolonial critic Homi K Bhabha Hybridity is a
creation of a new cultural forms and realities resulting from colonial
encounter. In colonial societies, Hybridity may be in the form of
retrival or the revival of the pre-colonial past. This can be in either
reviving folk or tribal cultural forms or conventions or adapting
contemporary artistic and social productions to suit the present-day
conditions of globalisation, multiculturalism and transnationalism.
What is significant in the process of colonialism is that it was not
a mere 'civilising mission' in which Europeans introduced languages such
as English, French and Spanish but a process of creating 'Europeanised '
natives. This process has been theorised by leading postcolonial
theorists such as Homi K Bhabha as the 'hybrid' colonised native. Pramod
K Nayar observes, "The colonial 'plan' for such as hybrid native is
clearly described in T.B Macaulay's (in)famous 'Minutes' of 1935 where
he described the creation of Europeanised native as the creation of 'a
class of persons', Indian in blood and colour, but English in taste , in
opinion, in morals, and in intellect. V.S Naipaul in a description of
contemporary Caribbean society captures this hybridised/ half-native/
half-Westernised, unsatisfactory identity of diasporic, once -colonised
communities:
A peasant-minded, money-minded community spiritually cut off from its
roots, its religion reduced to rites without philosophy set in a
materialistic colonial society: a combination of historical accidents
and national temperament has turned the Trinidad Indians into a complete
colonial, even more philistine that white. (The Middle Passage)
Naipaul describing a Caribbean identity in which 'roots' have been
erased and new ideas and ideologies planted."
Diasporic writings
One of the prominent areas where the Hybridity is captured is the
diasporic writings. Although many assume that the diaspora is a novel
concept, it was in latter half of the 20th century, that in the writings
of diasporic translated authors such as Bharati Mukherjee, Buchi
Emecheta, David Dabydeen, Caryl Philips, and Hanif Kureishi have
captured the diasporic, hybridised state of migrant communities.
Commenting on diasporic writings, Nayar states, " Diaspora is simply the
displacement of a community/culture into another geographical and
cultural region. Such movements were common during colonialism. ...As
communities settled down, they acquired certain traditions and
belief-systems. However, it is important to distinguish between kind of
migration and diaspora-refugees, asylum-seekers, illegal migrants,
voluntary migrants and job-seekers constitute different forms of
diasporic existence. Europeans moved all over the world, leading to
colonial settlements (Canada, Australia, the Americas). They also
transported Africans to colonies for slave labour, leading to yet
another diaspora. Curiously, 'diasporic' writing today has come to
signify the recent phenomenon of 'Third world' writers in Western
metropolises."
According to Roger Bromley that every narrative in diasporic writing
is 'both an individual story and, explicitly, a cultural narrative'. The
statement is closed to Jameson's claim/prescription that all 'Third
world' literature 'functions as national allegory'. To a greater extent,
it is true that diasporic writing is autobiographical, individual,
communal and cultural. It is a fact that most of the writers who codify
diasporic experiences are themselves diasporic in their real life.
Dislocation
Citing Maxine Hong Kingston's The Woman Warrior (1975), Nayar
observes the undecidable nature of diasporic writings. Hong Kingston's
book can be considered as ethnic biography, fiction and documentary. The
experiences of unsettlement, adaptation, language and longing depicted
in diasporic literature may be drawn from the author's own experience of
dislocation. Though individualistic in character, diasporic writing at
the same time, maps out an experience which is shared by many if they
have a voice. Therefore, one may argue that diasporic author can be seen
as metonym, one who stands for the entire community. Nayar suggest that
diasporic literature deals more with a 'problematic collective
situation' than with a 'problematic hero/ine'.
Primarily diasporic writings deal with experiences of exile and
homeland. Nayar observes these polarities as : " All diasporic
literature is an attempt to negotiate between these two polarities. The
writings of exiled/ immigrant writers undertakes two moves, one
temporal, and other special. It is, as Meena Alexander puts it, 'writing
in search of homeland'. "
However, this movement is not merely physical displacement on the
part of new migrants. It amounts to reconfiguration of the new reality
in the diaspora. Nayar describes this phenomenon as: "The temporary move
is a looking back at the past (analepsis) and looking forward at the
future (Prolepsis). Analepsis involves a negotiations with a retreating
history, past, traditions and customs. It produces nostalgia, memory,
and reclamation as literary themes. Prolepsis involves a different
treatment of time, where the writer looks forward at the future, seeking
new vistas, new chances. This produces themes of ethic of work, survival
and cultural assimilation. The proleptic narrative is agenda-driven as
the characters seek to survive hostility, adapt new circumstances and
gaze upon the future."
One of the significant features of the spatial move is the process of
a de-territorialisation and a re-territorialisation. The loss of
territory (De-territorialisation) involves not only the loss of
geographical territory, the homeland but also cultural territory. As
pointed out by Nayar, 'what is significant is that the loss of territory
is almost accompanied by gain of a new one. Dislocation from is followed
by re-location to. '. In this manner, diasporic literature deals with
space between 'home' and 'foreign country'.
But there are some first generation diasporic writers who have
manifestly failed to integrate into the adapted country and its
pluralistic culture. Agonies of inability to integrate into adapted
country are, sometimes, manifested in eternal lament expressed through
diasporic writings in general and in poetry in particular.
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