Sites of hybridity: A study of colonial and postcolonial fiction in India

Alaknanda Bagchi, Purdue University

Abstract

Postcolonial critics have explored the concept of colonial hybridity and analyzed the colonial discourse of supremacy used by the colonizers to subjugate the colonized. Critics such as Homi K. Bhabha have pointed out that the colonial/racial/cultural space where the colonizer and the colonized clash is often turned into a site of hybridity fraught with ambivalences. As the subjugated challenges the dominant discourse on the site of hybridity, the representation of the colonized as a passive entity is erased. Such a challenging of the dominant discourse is also evident in the postcolonial context. In the aftermath of decolonization, postcolonial nations like India have witnessed the rise to power of an Indian elite trained in the values of the colonizing British. Adopting the same tools of subordination utilized by their masters, these men in power have attempted to subjugate the Indian subaltern, who is marginalized on grounds of race, class, gender, and caste. The colonial discourse of supremacy has been replaced in independent India by the postcolonial discourse of nationalism. The new nation is defined by the dominant powers, and movements that challenge this definition are branded separatist. Yet in spite of the oppressive measures adopted by authoritative figures to erase the nationalisms operating on the margins of the "nation," subversive movements continue to threaten the center and re-write the nation. Thus in both the colonial and the postcolonial contexts the authoritative discourse is challenged and re-inscribed by the marginalized as disparate forces clash on the site(s) of hybridity. This dissertation explores the ambivalences engendered on the site(s) of hybridity as portrayed in colonial and postcolonial fiction in India.

Degree

Ph.D.

Advisors

Rowe, Purdue University.

Subject Area

British and Irish literature|Modern literature|Asian literature|South Asian Studies

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