| Esi Edugyan is a leading figure in the younger generation of Canadian literature.As the daughter of Ghanaian immigrants,she was interested in the life and plight of the diaspora blacks.Half-Blood Blues is Edugyan’s most successful novel.The book,set in Berlin and Paris during World War II,provides a vivid picture of Europe’s “Jazz Age.”The cross-racial,cross-ethnic,and cross-cultural identities of the characters depicted in the novel reflect the theme of “half-blood” and enrich the connotation of black humanity,bringing the black diaspora of World War II into view and opening a new direction for the study of black literature.Based on the theory of hybridity proposed by Homi K.Bhabha,this thesis intends to take Esi Edugyan’s Half-Blood Blues as the subject of the study and interpret the identity of the mulatto characters in the novel from three aspects:the loss of identity,the causes of the loss of identity,and the construction of identity.The whole thesis includes three parts: the introduction part,the main body part,and the conclusion part.The introduction introduces Edugyan’s life,writing career,and writing characteristics.The content and theme of Half-Blood Blues are also presented in this part.It provides a comprehensive overview of the domestic and foreign studies and research on Edugyan and her works.It discusses the research value of the identity construction of the mulatto characters in this novel based on Homi K.Bhabha’s hybridity theory.There are three chapters in the main body part of the thesis.The first chapter analyzes the lack of identity of mulattoes from three aspects of race,culture,and nationality.In terms of race,Hiero and Sid are mulattoes.There is both black and white blood in their vein.However,they are neither white nor black.In terms of culture,Hiero and Sid are both jazz musicians.The Nazi government’s prohibition of jazz prevents them from playing it publicly.They are the other of culture.In terms of nationality,Hiero was born in Germany but was deprived of his nationality due to his origin as a mulatto.Sid left America and went to live in Europe.His American nationality becomes the other in the foreign land.The second chapter analyzes the causes of identity loss of the mulattoes based on Homi K.Bhabha’s theory of hybridity.The most fundamental reason for the loss of racial identity,cultural identity,or national identity is Eurocentrism,the dualistic opposition theory of self and other,and essentialism constructed by the discourse of the ruling class.Furthermore,the fascist power politics of the Nazis and the life threat and spiritual destruction brought by the Second World War are also the fundamental reasons for the identity loss of Hiero and Sid.Based on Homi K.Bhabha’s hybrid identity construction strategy,the third chapter explores the mulattoes’ identity construction process and results.The disc “Half-Blood Blues” is a parody of the anthem of the Nazi party and the successful practice of Homi K.Bhabha’s “mimicry” strategy.The praise of “Half-blood Blues” also symbolizes the success of the racial and cultural identity construction of Hiero and Sid.In terms of the construction of national identity,Sid gets rid of the national exclusion by returning to his homeland.Hiero finds “the third space” to construct his national identity in Poland,where he forms a temporary community with people who are also suffering from national identity crises.The conclusion part summarizes the theoretical and practical significance of studying Half-Blood Blues from the perspective of Homi K.Bhabha’s hybridity theory.On the one hand,the identity construction of mulattoes in Half-Blood Blues is a successful practice of Homi Bhabha’s theory of hybridity,which once again proves the positive role of the theory in the study of the identity of diaspora black and mulattoes.On the other hand,in today’s Western society,the identity dilemma of the diaspora black and mulattoes still exists.The identity construction and self-identification of the characters in the novel can provide a feasible scheme for the minorities to eliminate the identity crisis. |
