Hybrid Identities in Adoptive Realms: A Third Space Study on Jackie Kay’s “So You Think I am a Mule?” (1984), “Black Bottom” (1991), and “Hottentot Venus” (1998)

In a multicultural sphere, adaptation and acculturation are intricate yet inevitable processes for the integration of a hybrid individual into the dominant society. Postcolonial critic Homi Bhabha, in his Location of Culture (1994), introduces the notion of a third space, wherein individuals’ struggles are elucidated through a wide array of elements, including hybridity, alienation, unhomeliness, ambivalence, in-betweenness, and mimicry. In this respect, this study aims to elucidate how Jackie Kay, an Afro-British poet, navigates her own odyssey within the Scottish context, where she is often perceived as an outsider despite her British upbringing and identity. In this regard, her poems “So You Think I am a Mule?” (1984), “Black Bottom” (1991), and “Hottentot Venus” (1998) are analysed within the framework of third space theory to underline to what extent and why a mixed-race poet creates hybrid personae within postcolonial settings. The seven-year intervals between these works also indicate shifts in Kay’s perspective as a Scottish person of colour. These autobiographical poems, featuring autobiographical speaking personae, reflect Kay’s evolving thoughts on being a hybrid individual in the white Western world. Viewed through a Hegelian lens, the poems function respectively as thesis, antithesis, and synthesis, highlighting their significance both to one another and to Kay as a hybrid poet whose personae are on a journey to reconcile with their hybrid identities. The poems, which contain cultural components that mirror the sociocultural dynamic of each set, add a deep layer to the analyses concerning acculturation processes. In conclusion, this study aims to bring a new perspective to the cultural study of contemporary British poetry through a dialectical approach to Kay’s selected poems in a cultural context. Given the seven-year gap between each poem, the study intends to illustrate how Kay reflects on her hybridity and upbringing as an adopted child through her fictional personae and how the dialectic nature of the three poems involves the personas’ evolving attitudes toward hybridity in foreign lands.