The Hybrid Identity: A Study of Struggle in Kamila Shamsie’s Burnt Shadows and Salt and Saffron

Abstract

This study is based on Kamila Shamsie’s novels Salt and Saffron and Burnt Shadows. It reveals the fundamental factors that construct the identity of the characters in the selected novels and their struggles in maintaining that identity. A hybrid identity is an identity made by distinct cultures, nationalities, classes, and societies. The hybrid identities do not have a stand to be represented and they continuously struggle in the numerous phases of their lives. The researcher has explored Shamsie’s characters, who have been influenced by these distinctive factors while struggling to be identified. It also explores shifts in the identity by analysing Shamsie’s novels. The hybrid nature of the characters and their associations with the struggles has been brought to surface. The study has been focused on various instances, the characters, plot, structure, and content of both novels. Bhabha's interpretation of hybridity as a model has been followed to interpret the very concept of this dissertation. The study concludes that the struggle for identity can have diverse effects on the characters presented in the selected novels and how the characters are struggling to be identified on various grounds.