IDENTITY CRISIS IN POSTCOLONIAL LITERATURE: A CRITICAL ANALYSIS OF CULTURAL HYBRIDITY AND COLONIAL INFLUENCE

Postcolonial literature can serve as a critical framework for the study of the legacy of colonialism on the construction of identity. One of the most salient issues in this genre of literature is the question of identity of subjects and subject groups under colonial rule. This work examines postcolonial constructions, ruptures and re-negotiations of identity, focusing on the notions of cultural hybridity and colonial influence. It states that colonialism was not only political and economic but also cultural in that it changed peoples\' values, languages, and self-perceptions, leading to a multiplicity of and sometimes conflicting identities. The research is qualitative and interpretive, with the use of the key postcolonial theorists Homi K. Bhabha, Edward Said and Frantz Fanon, establishing a theoretical framework. The idea of hybridity, mimicry, ambivalence and Orientalism are central concepts that will be utilized to analyse the interaction of the postcolonial subjects between indigenous traditions and imposed colonial ideologies. The study shows the psychological and cultural conflict between these two through selected literary works, which are analyzed textually. The results indicate that the notion of identity in the postcolonial literature is flexible and mobile, not essentialist and stable. Moreover, the study finds that identity crisis is not only an individual phenomenon, it is also a phenomenon of a collective that is determined by historical and socio-political factors. Literature can be a vehicle that allows under-empowered people to share their experiences of struggle and to re-imagine themselves. Finally, the study highlights the ambivalences of postcolonial identity and underscores that, although these can be challenging, hybridity provides opportunities for transformation and empowerment in a globalized world.