Creating Third Space In Hybridity:A Homi K. Bhabhan Perspective To A Passage To India

As one of the greatest British novelists and essayists in the20th century, Forster’s literary success was mainly embodied in six novels and one collection of his essays about literary creation with which he delivered as lectures in Cambridge University. And Forster achieved his world-wide fame by the publication of A Passage to India in1924, which was broadly acknowledged as his masterpiece.Since the early1920s, this novel has been analyzed and interpreted from various angles by critics and scholars from both home and abroad. Most reviews after the publication of the novel primarily focused on the political background. Critics in the1950s explored the application of literary techniques in the novel such as rhythm and symbolism. With the development of postcolonial theory in the1980s, some reviewers discussed characterization from the angle of feminism. And other scholars anatomized the plot based on the novelist’s personal relationships and his special sexual orientation.However, Hybridity in colonial culture of British-India has not been fully studied. Therefore, by adopting Homi K. Bhabha’s postcolonial method, this thesis intends to analyze the feature of Hybridity in British-Indian culture and anatomize the realistic significance of cultural differences in third cultural space created by the continuous conflicts and negotiations between the colonizers and the colonized, both of whom are two antagonistic powers.This thesis consists of five chapters. Chapter One includes a brief introduction to Forster’s personal background and his literary works; a literature review of the various studies of A Passage to India; and framework of this thesis. Chapter Two mainly introduces Homi K. Bhabha’s postcolonial theory, particularly focuses on the two approaches of Hybridity and Third Space. Chapter Three expounds the feature of Hybridity in colonial culture of British-India. Original single relations as colonial regime and suppression were broke down by Hybridity. Complicated circumstances of attraction and abnegation continuously exist between these two antagonistic powers. Hybridity gave the colonized Indians the chance of mimicry to imitate the British colonizers, which challenges the superiority and the pureness of the British colonizers who were even mocked by the mimicry of the colonized. Chapter Four examines how Third Space created in the Hybridity of British-Indian colonial culture by tracing back the development of the plot. Series of incidents and chain reactions around the excursion to Marabar Caves and the description of the spirit of India in the last part of the novel not only indicate the cultural difference of the West and the East, but also demonstrate the space of negotiation between the colonizers and the colonized was gradually open, which disintegrated the stability of duality in the Western colonizes’ philosophy and culture. And the culture of the colonized was empowered during the painful process of inter-actions with the colonizers. Chapter Five concludes how Hybridity functions and its practical significance in today’s world. Third Space created in Hybridity is not immobile or absolutely antagonistic; conversely, the continuous contact, fracture, and deliberate negotiation between different cultures are profitable to identify with cultural difference, and also useful to realize the equal and valuable exchange and communication between different cultures.