Failure and Construction of Identity in Jhumpa Lahiri’s The Lowland and Ahmad Saadawi’s Frankenstein in Baghdad: A Bhabhaian Approach

Abstract

This paper is concerned with the construction of identity from the perspective of postcolonialism. It applies Homi Bhabha's theory of hybrid identities to the study "Failure and Construction of Identity in Jhumpa Lahiri's The Lowland and Ahmad Saadawi's Frankenstein in Baghdad: A Bhabhaian Approach". It testifies that identity is fluid rather than fixed, even within one single context of colonialism, migration, or war. It probes how personal and national identities are formed and reshaped in the face of present external pressures. In the novel The Lowland, Lahiri portrays characters who are experiencing identity crises because of their migrations from India to the United States, researchers finding themselves at odds and conflicts in their inner selves as they turn to accommodate cultures and environments that were alien to them. It is on the other hand, Saadawi's Frankenstein in Baghdad, which has shown an Iraqi identity fragmented under war and foreign occupation, where individuals and a whole society suffer by dint of existence of violence and trauma to create new collective identity for survival. It also underlines how each novel differentiates between the issues of the depiction of identity, whereby Lahiri situates her exploration within the subjective formation of an individual's identity while Saadawi extends this to a collective social identity within a war-torn society. The conclusion underlines Bhabha's third space, whereby hybrid identities emerge as a result of cultural and power dynamics.