The Analysis of “Hybridity” in The Lonely Londoners from the Perspective of Postcolonial Theory

Abstract

This article gives an analysis of “hybridity” in Samuel Selvon’s novel The Lonely Londoners from the perspective of postcolonial theory, which depicts the lives of West Indian immigrants in post-World War II in London, as well as their negotiation of identities within a new cultural landscape. The “hybridity” discussed in this paper includes linguistic hybridity, naming hybridity, culinary hybridity, and hybridity in spaces. These multidimensional features of “hybridity” reveal the wisdom and strategies that characters demonstrate in the process of constructing identity and seeking a sense of belonging. Drawing on postcolonial theories of hybridity, this thesis analyzes how characters adeptly employ strategies of “hybridity” to negotiate identity and regain a sense of belonging, thus presenting the diversity of belonging and subjectivity in the postcolonial context through characters’ exploration and negotiation of hybrid identities.