negotiating the interstices @ a materialist re-appraisal of hybridity and home in Selvon, Levy, Adiche and Lahiri

Through a comparative analysis of Sam Selvon’s <i>The Lonely Londoners</i>, Andrea Levy’s <i>Small Island</i>, Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie’s <i>Americanah</i>, and Jhumpa Lahiri’s <i>The Namesake</i>, the study examines how cultural expectations collide with the socio-racial, linguistic, economic, and generational realities of host societies.

Drawing upon Stuart Hall’s conceptualization of cultural identity as “becoming” and Homi Bhabha’s theories of hybridity and the “Third Space,” the analysis identifies four recurring points of collision: imperial fantasies and lived realities, language and accent as markers of belonging, institutionalized racial exclusion, and the psychological difficulty of an unmediated return “home.” These theoretical perspectives are placed in conversation with materialist critiques advanced by Benita Parry, Aijaz Ahmad, and Neil Lazarus, whose work draws attention to the structural conditions within which cultural negotiation occurs.