Exploring Cultural Hybridity: A Postcolonial Reading of Desai’s The Inheritance of Loss

Abstract

This paper studies the depiction of multicultural global society. Globalization frames cultural hybridity as a definite outcome in the modern era because the present world is characterized by the mingling of different cultures and people have complex identities. Thus, it explores cultural hybridity, cultural clash, and identity crisis in Kiran Desai’s The Inheritance of Loss (2006). Hybridity is intermingled from both new and old values. When people adopt some new values, culture, and principles, they simultaneously lose the aspect of traditions from their ancestors. This tension places them in a dilemma leading to isolation and identity crisis. They experience a sense of rootlessness as they navigate between two worlds: the Western and non-Western. This is a postcolonial study that examines culture in relation to hybridity with the issue of identity. It applies Homi K. Bhabha's concept of hybridity for analyzing the primary text.