A Study of Cultural Hybridity and Liminality in the Works of Hala Alyan

Abstract

The concept of Liminality emerged from the anthropological works of Arnold Van Gennep and Victor Turner. Liminality refers to the "threshold". The liminal stage is a transitional or in-between phase of different characters and situations. In the era of postcolonialism, liminality has been applied in the context of culture. Concept of hybridity was at first used in the field of science and later in postcolonial scenario, it got associated with the mixing of cultures. Liminality theory has put a significant impact on postcolonial studies because it provides a framework for understanding the complex experiences of people who have been displaced and dislocated. In the postcolonial context, liminality and cultural hybridity are often experienced by people who have migrated from one place to another. The migrants face the challenge of adapting to a new culture while also maintaining their own cultural identity. They may also find themselves caught in a liminal state, in between two cultures, feeling like they don't fully belong to either one. On the other hand, they may feel that they belong to both cultures in equal measure and form a new hybrid culture which is mixture of the culture of their homeland and native state. The Palestinian American writer Hala Alyan’s novels and poems are full of such characters and situations which explore the themes of liminality and cultural hybridity.