HYBRID IDENTITIES OF THE CHARACTERS OF JHUMPA LAHIRI’S STORIES IN INTERPRETER OF MALADIES

Abstract

The goal of this study is to examine the hybrid identity of the characters and their issues in three short stories from Interpreter of Maladies by Jhumpa Lahiri. Lahiri is an Indian American diasporic writer who examines the lives of diaspora community residing in the United States. The postcolonial theoretical framework of Homi K. Bhabha is used for the analysis of the text. The process of assimilation results in hybridity and creates a gap between the practices of host culture and the foreign culture. There are various events taking place in the stories because of characters’ hybridity and resulting into different psychological and social issues such as fear of losing one’s host culture, religious hybridity, hegemony, isolation, alienation, and separation.