Call For Papers Hybridity Identity

TRACING THE BOUNDARY OF POST-COLONIAL’S
HYBRIDITY IDENTIY:
AN OOVERWHELMING SENSE OF IN-BETWEENNESS AND
THE SILENT SHOUT OF THE “OTHERNESS”
J. Rhys, Wide Sargasso Sea &

C. Achebe, Things Fall Apart
Segregation and territorial constructions Other vs Self
Spatial marginality Third Space Hybrid Identities
• Each nation has its unique culture and tradition: on one hand the
immigrants must succumb to the traditions of the culture. Everyone try to
preserve certain practices and traditions of the homeland culture:
• “A home is a place where we belong, a place we can call our own, somewhere we are always appreciated. No matter how we
define our own home, we can probably agree on the fact that a home is a place that not only gives us a place of shelter,
stability, and comfort, but also offers us means of orientation. It gives an idea about our place in the world and where we
originated from, and thus also where we belong. A home is also a place where we are welcome, all in all a secure place where
we can be ourselves”. (McLeod 2000: 207)
Building the “SELF” in relation to the “OTHER”
Hybridity is the process by which the colonial governing

authority undertakes to translate the identity of the colonised - the
Other - within a singular universal framework, but then fails The concept of "Otherness"
producing something new; […] A new hybrid identity or subject-
position emerges from the interweaving of elements of the
defines the building of the Self
“coloniser” and “colonised” challenging the validity and in relation to the Other – the
authenticity of any essentialist cultural identity. (Bhabha, 1994) other is hence an indispensable
component of the ego – The
colonizer is dependent upon the
continued and insistent
representations of its other as
Hybridity identities is formed by a inferior, domesticated, inactive
conjunction of cultures positioned and desirable
within the third space/ in-between
space; Able to transverse both
cultures through space and time
Being an Outsider
• Both Antoinette and Annette are Caribbean Creole and

belongs to Jamaica, they are neither black nor white:
• "They say when trouble comes close ranks, and so the

white people did. But we were not in their rank. The
The ambivalent hybrid is a migrant who is also

Jamaican ladies had never approved of my mother”. (Rhys
ideally of colour, “dispossessed, schizophrenic,
exilic, often profoundly unhappy and exploited under
1966: 15)
capitalism” (Hodge and Mishra 2005: 384)
The "Other" is a threat to what is treasured
The Mad Woman as the pure and original and can potentially
destroy it. (Kearney 2002: 65)
“Go away, white cockroach, go away, go away.” (Rhys

1966: 20)
“Keep them then, you cheating nigger, I said, for I was

tired, and water I had swallowed 12 made me feel sick. 'I
“Mimicry is when members of a colonized
"A fantastic marriage and he will regret it. Why should a can get more if I want to. 'That's not what she hears, she
society imitate the language, manners, and
very wealthy man who could take his pick of all the girls said. She hears all we poor like beggar. We ate salt fish –
in the West Indies, and many in England too probably?' lifestyle of their colonizers. It is mostly
'Why probably?' the other voice said. 'Certainly.' 'Then regarded as something disgraceful, and a no money for fresh fish. That old house so leaky, you
why should he marry a widow without a penny to her person engaged in it is usually ridiculed by run with calabash to catch water when its rain. Plenty
name and Coulibri a wreck of a place? Emancipation
troubles killed old Cosway? Nonsense – the estate was the other members of the community”. white people in Jamaica. Real white people, they got
going downhill for years before that”. (Rhys 1966: 13) (Bhabha, 1994) gold money. They didn't look at us, nobody sees them
come near us. Old time white people nothing but white
nigger now, and black nigger better than white nigger”.
(Rhys 1966: 9)
"The final hour of colonialism has struck, and millions of inhabitants of
Africa, Asia, and Latin America rise to meet a new life and demand their
unrestricted right to self-determination". (CheGuevera, 1964)
• The concept of hybridity, introduced by Achebe, refers to the

procedures by which the colonial power attempts to treat the
culture and identity of the colonized through Igbo society:
• “What are you doing here? "Obierika asked, not knowing what else to say.
Missionaries had allowed him to speak to the boy. "I am one of them, "replied
Nwoye. "How is your father?" Obierika asked, not knowing what else to say." I
don't know. He is not my father," said Nwoye, unhappily”. (Achebe 1958: 52)
The Empowerment of Hybridity
• Okonkwo struggles with the converted Igbo society and the British colonizers. Achebe also
shows the empowerment of hybridity when the Igbo began to abandon their old religious
customs:
“Does the white man understand our custom about land? “How can he when he not
"You have all see the great abomination of your brother. Now he is no longer
even speaks our tongue?” But he says that our customs are bad; and our own
my son or your brother. I will only have a son who is a man, who will hold
brothers who have taken up his religion also say that our customs are bad”.
his head up among my peoplen”. (Achebe 1958: 20)
(Achebe 1958: 20)
Hybrid discourse gives the opportunity to the other voices and ideologies to be heard and at the same time,
they can prove their existence and declare resistance
"The existence of hybrids enables a plurality of voices to be heard for the first time while,
simultaneously, challenging the authoritative discourse of the West" . (Karkanevatou 2016: 55)
TO SUM UP
CRUX ARGUMENTS
Development of hybrid The ambivalence

identities: from cultural enhances in them a sense Hybridity
and colonial encounters of alienation, exile, and
and displacement in of culture
dislocation.
another space.
“Achieving our own national or communal identity in a global world, demands that we revise our sense of
symbolic citizenship, our myths of belonging, by identifying ourselves with the starting points of other
national and international histories and geographies”. (Bhabha, 2004)
REFERENCES
• Achebe, C. (1958). "Things Fall Apart". London: Penguin Group.

• Bhabha, H. K. (1994). "The Location of Culture". New York: Routledge.
• Che Guevara. (1964) . Address to the United State.
• McLeod, J. (2000). "Beginning Postcolonialism". Manchester: Manchester University Press.
• Hodge, B., Mishra. (2005). “What is Postcolonialism? New Literary History". 384.
• Karkanevatou, S. (2016). “Cultural Identity Revisited in Chinua Achebe’s Things Fall Apart and L.M
Silko’s Ceremony.”. Thessaloniki: University of Thessaloniki.
• Kearney, R. (2002). "Strangers, Gods and Monsters". London: Routledge.
• Rhys, J. (1966). "Wide Sargasso Sea". London: Penguin Group.

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TRACING THE BOUNDARY OF POST-COLONIAL’S

J. Rhys, Wide Sargasso Sea &

Spatial marginality Third Space Hybrid Identities

Hybridity is the process by which the colonial governing

• Both Antoinette and Annette are Caribbean Creole and

• "They say when trouble comes close ranks, and so the

The ambivalent hybrid is a migrant who is also

“Go away, white cockroach, go away, go away.” (Rhys

“Keep them then, you cheating nigger, I said, for I was

• The concept of hybridity, introduced by Achebe, refers to the

Development of hybrid The ambivalence

• Achebe, C. (1958). "Things Fall Apart". London: Penguin Group.

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