Hybridity as a Dynamic Process of Identity Negotiation in Contemporary Pakistani English

Abstract

In this study, hybridity is not viewed as a static cultural phenomenon but rather as an ongoing, dynamic phenomenon of identity negotiation in modern Pakistani English fiction. The study focuses on the novels Exist West (2017) by Mohsin Hamid, Home Fire (2017) by Kamila Shamsie, and Red Birds (2018) by Mohammed Hanif to explore the processes through which identities are negotiated and renegotiated amid experiences of displacement, violent politics, and global power imbalances. Contrasting with conventional postcolonial approaches to hybridity, in which hybridity is seen as a static ‘third space’ (Bhabha, 1994), hybridity in this study is understood as a process influenced by linguistic accommodation, spatial displacement, and psychological change. As seen in the results, identity in Exist West is presented as adaptive and changeable in circumstances of displacement, whereas Home Fire is presented as a process of identity formation that is problematic and institutionally defined by both surveillance and belonging. Meanwhile, Red Birds portrays identity as fragmented due to circumstances of warfare and the collapse of knowledge. In both cases, identity formation is portrayed as a continuous process of negotiation in response to movement and globalized power relations. By combining concepts of hybridity in the work of Homi K. Bhabha with identity process theory (Hall, 1996) and mobility studies (Appadurai, 1996), this analysis contributes to modern postcolonial literary theory through the reconceptualization of Pakistani English literature.

Keywords: Hybridity, Identity Negotiation, Pakistani English Fiction, Postcolonial Literature, Migration, Third Space, Processual Identity