LINGUISTIC HYBRIDITY AND CULTURAL IDENTITY IN PAKISTANI AND INTERNATIONAL ENGLISH FICTION: A COMPARATIVE DISCOURSE ANALYSIS

Abstract

Linguistic hybridity is emerging as a significant structural and thematic element in contemporary Anglophone fiction, and especially so in Anglophone writing rooted in a colonial past, a multilingual society, migration, and transnational contact. The interactions between English and Urdu, as well as with other Pakistani languages and a range of culturally specific varieties such as Nigerian English, indicate the importance of language not only as a vehicle of literary expression but also a social resource for negotiating identities, ideologies, and power. This article explores the relationships between linguistic hybridity and notions of cultural identity in Pakistani and international Anglophone fiction through a comparative discourse-analytical analysis of Mohsin Hamid's Exit West (2017), Kamila Shamsie's Home Fire (2017), and Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie's Americanah (2013). Using a qualitative interpretive research paradigm based on postcolonial theories of hybridity, theories of language and identity, sociolinguistics, and critical discourse analysis, I investigate code-switching, code-mixing, culturally loaded vocabulary, vocal qualities of the representation of a foreign/foreign-trained accent, narrative voice, representations of naming practices, and ideologically encoded discourses of belonging. The discussion uses current research about Pakistani writing in English, the phenomenon of literary linguistic hybridity, and the postcolonial transnational imaginary, especially in relation to issues of cultural identity. The comparative analysis highlights the interconnectedness of different mechanisms of language use in context, which should be appreciated as discursive acts of agency that protect characters from cultural essentialism, allow them to formulate multiple identities in an unequal social environment, and transcend the linguistic inequalities around them.