DIASPORIC LONGING AND LINGUISTIC HYBRIDITY IN KAMILA SHAMSIE’S “HOME FIRE”

Abstract

In Home Fire, Kamila Shamsie examines questions of identity, belonging and the rising tides of cultural conflict through South Asian characters dispersed in the West. Using the method of ‘diasporic’ studies and a focus on linguistic hybridity, it is explored in this paper how Shamsie’s representation of a desire for home and struggle between cultural spaces are expressed through language and narrative progression. The article suggest that Shamsie’s characters engage with a dialectical process’ in which their cultural and hybrid identities are represented; the discussion posits language as both an important means of expression and a negotiation of diasporic identity. The essays also illustrate ways in which the novel’s narrative techniques emulate the language mash-ups and cultural practices of diasporic existence. In transcending engendered distances 'this article explores language as a site of identity construction in diasporic communities, supplementing the ongoing debate about hybridity in postcolonial texts. The guiding questions are: What evidence of linguistic hybridity is present in the characters’ speech and their thoughts? How does Shamsie utilize language to portray the psychological effects of Alossi yearning? How does Home Fire make language the focus of negotiating identity, in the diaspora?

Keywords: Diaspora, Linguistic Hybridity, Kamila Shamsie, Home Fire, Identity, Cultural Belonging