Abstract
The focus of the present study is to demonstrate traces of Homi k. Bhabha’s notion of identity in V.S. Naipaul’s A House for Mr. Biswas (1961). As a prominent postcolonial figure, Bhabha has contemplated over the formation of identity in the colonizing circumstances. He discusses on what happens to the colonizer and the colonized while interacting each other, arguing that both the colonizer and the colonized influence one another during which their identity is formed, fragmented and alienated. In considering Naipaul’s A House for Mr. Biswas as postcolonial text, by the help of postcolonial theories of Homi Bhabha, it is argued that, mentioned novel sums up Naipaul’s approach to how individuals relate to places. This novel shows that individuals’ quest for home and a place of belonging is complicated first, by the reality of homelessness, and second, by the socio-cultural complexities peculiar to every place. In other words, the reality of homelessness makes the desire for home, elusive. A House for Mr. Biswas describes the story of homeless and rootless immigrants who lack identity and security in the colonial world. In this novel Naipaul deals with shifting identities, roots, homes and changing realities of migrants. Keywords: Identity, Ambivalence, Other, Creolization, Mimicry, Clash of cultures, Unhomeliness
Highlights
As it was mentioned as a prominent postcolonial figure, Bhabba has contemplated over the formation of identity in the colonizing circumstances
He discusses on what happens to the colonizer and the colonized while interacting each other, arguing that both the colonizer and the colonized influence one another during which their identity is formed, fragmented and alienated
About 40 percent of Trinidadians are of African descent; another 40 percent are of Indian descent; and the rest, referred to as Creoles, and are mixtures from different ethnic backgrounds
Summary
69, 2006).In the essay ‘The commitment to theory’ (1988), Homi Bhabha describes that the recording signifiers of cultural diversity which is a mere reference to a range of separate and distinct groups of behavior, attitudes and values It can be understood from such a framework that such differences are ‘merely aberrant or exotic’, as was ‘implicit in imperialistic ethnographies’ All the terms which have been explained through the eye of Bhabha, are to emphasize the fact that in the process of interaction between the colonizer and the colonized, the identity of both groups undergoes a serious changes As it was mentioned as a prominent postcolonial figure, Bhabba has contemplated over the formation of identity in the colonizing circumstances. This study argues how people who have been colonized once, the colonial migrant intellectuals who had left the colonies to locate themselves in the centers of the world, imitate their colonial masters and struggle to internalize the values and cultures of the West
Sign-in/Register to view highlights & summary Sign-in/Register to access full text options 
Talk to us
Join us for a 30 min session where you can share your feedback and ask us any queries you have
Schedule a callDisclaimer: All third-party content on this website/platform is and will remain the property of their respective owners and is provided on "as is" basis without any warranties, express or implied. Use of third-party content does not indicate any affiliation, sponsorship with or endorsement by them. Any references to third-party content is to identify the corresponding services and shall be considered fair use under The CopyrightLaw.
