Theory & Philosophy What is Hybridity? | Homi Bhabha | Keyword
May 7, 2021
Homi Bhabha, an expert on hybridity, explores the concept's importance in post-colonial theory and challenges binary oppositions. The transgressive potential of hybridity in colonization is also discussed.
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Bhabha Challenges Postcolonial Binaries
- Bhabha critiques postcolonial theory for oversimplifying colonizer and colonized into binary opposites.
- He suggests hybridity supplements these theories by revealing complexities in identity and power during colonization.
Hybridity Collapses Colonial Binaries
- Homi Bhabha critiques the neat colonial split of colonizer and colonized, proposing hybridity as a space where such binaries collapse.
- Hybridity unsettles assumed pure categories by blending subject-object and home-world distinctions in colonial contexts.
Hybridity Reverses Colonial Power
- Colonized people adopt colonizers' ways, undermining colonial purity and creating a transgressive reversal of power relations.
- This complicates colonial dominance by exposing contradictions in notions of superiority and culture ownership.