The Honor of Being Colonized: A Bhabhaian Reading of Elif Shafak’s Honour

Document Type : Original Research

Authors
Behzad Pourgharib 1
Somayeh Kiani 2
Sepideh Ziadbakhsh 3
1 Assistant Professor, Department of English Language and Literature, Golestan University, Golestan, Iran
2 PhD Student & Teaching Assistant, University of Waterloo, Canada
3 MA, Department of English Language and Literature, Islamic Azad University, South Tehran Branch, Tehran, Iran
Abstract
The present paper examines Elif Shafak’s 2011 novel Honour based on Bhabhaian concepts of hybridity and unhomeliness. Bhabha broached the idea of hybridity in order to address the social dimensions of postcolonial analyses.4 Hybridity occurs when the relationship between the colonizer and the colonized blurs various boundaries. Bhabha explores the possibility of a hybrid space to elucidate the recollections of migrants and their unhomeliness. He defines hybrid identity as one constructed through relocation and separation in the contact zone. In fact, it is in a third space of enunciation in which every thought by both the colonizer and the colonized finds a means of expression or exchange. Using concepts of hybridity and unhomeliness to delve into Shafak's Honour, this research concludes that within the social and cultural structures and discourse of their ‘new’ country, diasporic characters feel unhomed and struggle to fill gaps and redefine their identities. The paper argues that characters in the novel seek refuge in diasporic communities to counter stereotypes. Their attempts, however, result in new experiences and feelings of isolation, nostalgia, insecurity, split self, and a sense of being out of place.

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The International Journal of Humanities
Volume 25, Issue 3
Spring 2018
Pages 49-62