Borders and Belonging: Negotiating Identity and Cultural Hybridity in Diasporic Spaces

View Sample PDF

Author(s): Aditi Gaur (Graphic Era University, India), Prachi Rawat (Graphic Era University, India)and Prabha Lama (Graphic Era University, India)
Copyright: 2026
Pages: 22
Source title: Identity and the Dynamics of Border Crossing
Source Author(s)/Editor(s): Saad Boulahnane (Hassan I University, Morocco)
DOI: 10.4018/979-8-3373-2592-7.ch008

Keywords: General Law / Immigration & Migration / Information Science Reference / Knowledge Management and Library Science

Purchase

View Borders and Belonging: Negotiating Identity and Cultural Hybridity in Diasporic Spaces on the publisher's website for pricing and purchasing information.

Abstract

This chapter explores the complex negotiation of identity, belonging, and cultural hybridity in diasporic spaces through a postcolonial lens, focusing on The Inheritance of Loss by Kiran Desai and Americanah by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie. It examines how migration, both legal and illegal, disrupts cultural identity, producing fractured subjectivities shaped by nostalgia, racism, and historical colonial legacies. Drawing on theories by Fanon, Crenshaw, Brah, Bhabha, and Rushdie, the chapter investigates how performative elements like food, language, and names become sites of both resistance and assimilation. It highlights the enduring influence of colonial structures on transnational belonging and identity formation, revealing the intersections of race, class, gender, and nationality. Through the lived experiences of migrant characters navigating liminal, racialized geographies, the chapter critiques how postcolonial subjectivities are formed and contested in globalized yet unequal contexts.

The IRMA Community

Research IRM

Borders and Belonging: Negotiating Identity and Cultural Hybridity in Diasporic Spaces

Purchase

Abstract

Related Content

IRMA Sponsors