The Question of Identity in A. Gurnah’s Paradise and V. S. Naipaul’s The Mimic Men

Abstract

The question of identity, in the postcolonial context, delves into subalterns’ sense of ambivalence while interacting with the postcolonial world which occurs due to the hybridization of their identity. Gleason suggests that an individual’s postcolonial identity “decides where he or she stands with respect to the traditional [native] values, beliefs, and institutions that are being called into question, and with respect to the contrasting interpretations being offered” by the west (195). Both A. Gurnah’s Paradise and V. S. Naipaul’s The Mimic Men depict how subalterns’ acceptance and mimicry of Europeanness cause hybridity in their identity from where the reclamation of their pre-colonial identity is impossible. This qualitative study investigates how the subalterns’ identity is hybridized with the theoretical support of Stuart Hall’s “Cultural Identity and Diaspora” and Edward K. Brathwaite’s concept of creolization. Besides, in this study, Frantz Fanon’s concept of national culture, Robert Young’s theory of hybridity, and Michael Dash are taken into consideration to examine how the hybridization of subalterns' identities sets a barrier for them to reclaim their pre-colonial identity. This study further implies why the natives find their postcolonial identity absurd.