Postcolonial Cultural Identity: A Comparative Intersectional Analysis of the Creation of Cultural Identity
Authors
Oddershede, Maria Hildur ; Larsen, Lykke
Term
4. term
Education
Publication year
2018
Submitted on
2018-05-29
Pages
134
Abstract
Denne afhandling undersøger, med inspiration fra Chimamanda Ngozi Adichies advarsel mod den entydige fortælling, hvordan kulturel identitet bliver skabt og skildret i fire postkoloniale romaner: Kiran Desais The Inheritance of Loss, Arundhati Roys The God of Small Things, Tsitsi Dangarembgas Nervous Conditions og Chimamanda Ngozi Adichies Americanah. Formålet er at belyse de problemstillinger, der opstår, når kulturel identitet forstås gennem forsimplede kategorier, og at vise hvordan identiteter formes i krydsfeltet mellem race, køn, klasse, nationalitet, alder, religion samt sociale og historiske kontekster. Afhandlingen anvender en komparativ, intersektionel analyse, der først sammenholder de to indiske romaner, dernæst de to afrikanske og til sidst alle fire på tværs. Teoretisk bygger den på kulturidentitetsteori (Charles Taylor, Kwame Anthony Appiah, Stuart Hall) og feministisk postkolonial teori (Ien Ang, Avtar Brah, bell hooks, Sara Mills, Kirin Narayan), indrammet af Patricia Hill Collins og Sirma Bilges tilgang til intersektionalitet. Analysen viser, at forfatterne kredser om de samme diskurser om race, køn, klasse, nationalitet, religion og alder, men at de hierarkiserer og vægter dem forskelligt som følge af deres forskellige baggrunde, erfaringer og generationer. Afhandlingen konkluderer, at forståelsen af kulturel identitet kræver, at kategorierne betragtes i deres indbyrdes samspil frem for isoleret, hvis man vil indfange de komplekse årsager til personers valg og handlinger i postkoloniale sammenhænge.
Motivated by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie’s warning against the single story, this thesis examines how cultural identity is constructed and represented in four postcolonial novels: Kiran Desai’s The Inheritance of Loss, Arundhati Roy’s The God of Small Things, Tsitsi Dangarembga’s Nervous Conditions, and Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie’s Americanah. It addresses the pitfalls of reductive identity categories and explores how identities emerge at the intersection of race, gender, class, nationality, age, religion, and social and historical contexts. The study employs a comparative, intersectional analysis that first pairs the two Indian novels, then the two African novels, and finally reads all four together. Its theoretical framework combines work on cultural identity (Charles Taylor, Kwame Anthony Appiah, Stuart Hall) with feminist postcolonial perspectives (Ien Ang, Avtar Brah, bell hooks, Sara Mills, Kirin Narayan), structured by Patricia Hill Collins and Sirma Bilge’s approach to intersectionality. The analysis finds that while all authors engage similar discourses of race, gender, class, nationality, religion, and age, they prioritize and hierarchize these differently, reflecting divergent backgrounds, experiences, and generations. The thesis concludes that understanding cultural identity requires viewing categories as mutually shaping rather than in isolation, in order to grasp the complex reasons behind characters’ choices and actions in postcolonial settings.
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Keywords
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