Negotiating Hybridity: Cross-Cultural Identity Formation in Contemporary Indian Diasporic Fiction

Abstract

The fiction of the Indian diaspora goes beyond simply providing a story - it weaves together in a magnificent way the stories of family, identity and culture, as well as their complications in a transcultural world. It focuses on postcolonialism and globalization, investigating the life of Indian expatriates captivated in a paradox of belonging and estrangement. This study analyses the works of Lahiri, Rushdie, and Mukherjee, who capture identity politics of cross-border culture through displacement, nostalgia, and refiguration. Following from his model of hybridity, Bhabha Homi K. captured the integration of self-contested culture and sub-cultures. These fictional monologues reflect considerations for new identities that grow out of gaps left by the clash of different cultures. They are alive only to tell stories but they become useful in telling questions of - who do they belong to, of what value, and what do they fit within the demarcations?  Lahiri and Mukherji’s hybrid fictional works demonstrate how the intercultural reality of contemporary society provides unlimited opportunities for identity re-construction. Furthermore, Indian expatriate fiction illustrates personal hardships and conflicts of individuals amidst cultural globalization while stressing an intricate framework of global relations. In this paper, I will analyse hybrid identity construction of contemporary Indian diasporic fiction through three lenses: preservation of culture, negotiation of belonging to the new place, and technology.