Homi K Bhabha (Narrating the Nation)
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Was born on the 1st of November 1949 in Bombay India. His academic work was focused on Post-colonial theory and post-structuralism.
He is one of the most important figures in contemporary post-colonial studies (post-colonial studies are the academic study of the cultural legacy of colonialism and imperialism, focusing on the human consequences of the control and exploitation of colored people and their lands. In summary it is a theoretical approach that is concerned with the lasting impact of colorization in former colonies)
He developed several the field’s key concepts such as; hybridity, mimic and ambivalence.
MIMICRY
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Is most commonly seen when members of a colonized society imitate the language, dress, politics or cultural attitude of their colonizers. For example, in Nigeria where jeans are a normal thing to wear in the more urban areas and even into the more rural areas, even though at a point in history Jeans were not a normal thing to wear. Or with democracy, before colonization, most places in Nigeria where ruled by a King that was not voted for, but now Democracy is the topic of the day.
HYBRIDITY
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Within colonial and post-colonial literature, it most commonly refers to colonial subjects who have found a balance between theirs and western cultural attributes.
There is;
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Linguistic Hybridity: Where elements from a foreign language enter another. (for example, English is a wild mix of Latin, Greece, French and a slew of many other languages)
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Cultural Hybridity
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Religious Hybridity: How different belief systems interact with traditional and local cultural-religious frameworks.
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Sees culture as consisting of opposing perceptions and dimensions. Bhabha claims that this ambivalence, allows for beings who are a hybrid of their own cultural identity and the colonizers cultural identity.
Points in Narrating the Nation
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Critics the idea that a nation is homogenous.
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To consider national identities as products of international interaction. E.g. Mexican Americans
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To understand a modern nation truly, one must think of national or international in terms of many stories and in terms of transgressing political, geographic and cultural boundaries.
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He collects a series of essays which explore the way that authors have used narrative strategies to construct an image of their nations.
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When we study the texts of Bhabha we unavoidably construct a new image of what we feel is “American”
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Each Author writes about their personal views of what America has become.
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I primarily n intervention into essentialist readings of nationality that attempt to define and naturalize Third World “nations”.
Notes
In short, he tries to show that many third world countries are hybrids of not just their cultures but also western ones.
In present time, the same can be said for Western cultures. With the influx of immigrants from many countries and development of technology, truly the world is now a hot pot cultures no matter the place.
References:
Homi K. Bhabha Wikipedia
Bhabha, H. K. (n.d.). Narrating The Nation.
Bowyer, A. (1993). “Narrating the nation”: Homi Bhabha and Gustav Frenssen∗. Journal of Literary Studies, 9, 250-265. Retrieved 12 6, 2019, from http://tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/02564719308530047
Knoenagel, A. (1992). Homi K. Bhabha, ed., Nation and Narration. The International Fiction Review, 19(2). Retrieved 12 6, 2019, from https://journals.lib.unb.ca/index.php/ifr/article/view/14146/15228