Postcolonial Hybridity as Theme and Technique: Reading Levy, Rushdie, and Adichie

Abstract

Hybridity is recognised in postcolonial literature as a vital concept for understanding diasporic identities. Diasporic subjects attempt to reject fractured, fluid identities shaped by migration, displacement, and colonial legacies by challenging Homi K. Bhabha's theories and critiques. The study presents hybridity as both a thematic focus and a narrative technique through close analysis of several works from South Asian, Caribbean, and African diasporic literature, including Andrea Levy's Small Island, Salman Rushdie's The Satanic Verses, and Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie's Americanah. These texts oppose essentialist ideas of identity and national allegiance by illustrating the complexity of cultural negotiation, memory, and belonging. The paper concludes by proposing that postcolonial literature offers a valuable framework for rethinking belonging as a relational and dynamic process that supports inclusive and decolonial perspectives on identity in the globalised world.