New Directions Proposal: Literary and Film Examples of Mimicry and Hybridity

Curt Hagegeorge will present "Literary and Film Examples of Mimicry and Hybridity."

Abstract:
Three primary literary texts including The Mimic Men (1967) by Vidiadhar Surajprasad “V. S.” Naipaul (1932-Present), The Satanic Verses (1988) by Salman Rushdie (1947-Present), and My Son the Fanatic (1994) by Hanif Kureishi (1954-Present), are considered to be premier literary works that relate to aspects of cultural mimicry within hybrid spaces. Mimicry occurs within the hybrid spaces due to an immigration pattern where the people who are arriving in Britain from the post-colonial periphery nations are typically arriving to begin their lives at the bottom of the social strata. In effect, these hybridized spaces become places of cultural conflict and thus resistance to the secular ways of the West. This dichotomous essentialist approach to what is portrayed as being polar opposites, between cultural worlds of East and West, a continuum exists, and within this continuum is where hybridity emerges and resistance resides. In each work, the characters are struggling to find an acceptable form of resistance within the hybrid spaces of the post-modern world.  Perhaps it is this globalized diversity that has ushered in such profound social changes is what the fundamentalists are striking against the most within these works. Basically, the quest for cultural purity is a problematic proposition within a world of increasing hybridity. Each story portrays characters who find their own way towards an acceptable form of resistance within the hybrid spaces of the post-modern world as a form of hybrid resistance. "   
 
Curt Hagegeorge: English Studies, TESOL