Language And Identity In Postcolonial Diaspora: A Study Of Linguistic Hybridity In Khaled Hosseini And Chinua Achebe’S Works

Abstract

Linguistic hybridity is a key concept in postcolonial literature and it can be used to resist as well as adapt among diasporic people. This paper discusses the use of linguistic hybridity in The Kite Runner by Khaled Hosseini and Things Fall Apart by Chinua Achebe in the presentation of cultural displacement and the identity problem. By employing the concept of hybrid (Homi Bhabha), the views on the decolonization of the language (Ngungi wa Thiongo), and the idea of dialogism (Mikhail Bakhtin), the paper investigates the ways in which Achebe and Hosseini use the native languages (Igbo, Pashto, Dari) in the works written in English to form the diasporic consciousness of the characters. In its analysis and comparative reading, the study concludes that linguistic hybridity is one of the tools used by Achebe to preserve and resist the culture through inclusion of Igbo proverbs, untranslated phrases, and oral traditions of storytelling to defy the power of colonial English. Conversely, Hosseini is linguistically hybrid and uses it as a visualization of nostalgia and adjusting to a new environment which is represented by the mixture of Persian and Pashto words into an English environment to symbolize the broken identities of the Afghan exiles. The argument of this paper is that, although the linguistic techniques used by Achebe help stress the precolonial cultural continuity, Hosseini focuses on emotional and psychological issues of exiles. This study contributes to the study of postcolonial literature by comparing these two literary practices and demonstrating the way the language can be a living space of negotiating identity in diaspora literature. The findings confirm the importance of linguistic hybridity in postcolonial discourse and provide insights on how language is resistant and accommodative to cultural change.