Date Thesis Awarded
5-2021
Access Type
Honors Thesis -- Access Restricted On-Campus Only
Degree Name
Bachelors of Arts (BA)
Department
English
Advisor
M. Lynn Weiss
Committee Members
Simon Joyce
R. Benedito Ferrao
Chinua Thelwell
Abstract
“Whole and Hybrid” explores the influence of hybridity theory in Salman Rushdie’s The Satanic Verses (1988) and Hari Kunzru’s The Impressionist (2002). Hybridity theory refers to the branch of postcolonial theory popularized by Homi Bhabha that looks the ways in which literature, individuals, and communities respond to cultural interaction, especially in postcolonial societies. As literature written by British-Indian authors, these two novels are concerned with the relationship between Britain and India, both during and following the British Raj. This thesis looks in particular at how magical realism relates to colonialism, the link between performativity and identity, and how language both complicates and enforces the hybridity in the novels.
Recommended Citation
Strange, Louise, "Whole and Hybrid: Resisting Essentialism in The Satanic Verses and The Impressionist" (2021). Undergraduate Honors Theses. William & Mary. Paper 1620.
https://scholarworks.wm.edu/honorstheses/1620
