Cultural Hybridity and Transnational Spaces in Kiran Desai's Fiction

<p><span>Kiran Desai fiction walks down a complex pathway of cultural hybridity and transnational identity and situates her characters in worlds defined by migration, colonial history, global displaces. This paper takes into consideration the lived experiences of characters that exist in a complicated space between nations, languages, and cultural codes as illustrated by the works of Desai particularly in The Inheritance of Loss and Hullabaloo in the Guava Orchard. Applying postcolonial and diaspora criticism, in particular the concept of the third space by Homi Bhabha and the cult of identity proposed by Stuart Hall, the paper shows that in their writings, Desai forces cultural belonging to be fluid, with hybridity articulated by anxiety, contradiction and negotiation. The idea of transnational space as one that is in flux, that is in motion, that is fragmented, becomes a literary and ideological setting against which Desai criticizes class differences, racism, and even the appearance of universally global cosmopolitanism. And this paper finally functions to demonstrate how fiction like that of Desai serves to gain a local/ global nexus point and yield originations of new meanings of culture that is always advanced and challenged.</span></p>