26th Annual Student Research Conference
Cultural Hybridity: A Solution for the Isolated Individual in Tayeb Salih's Season of Migration to the North
Haley A. Hunter
Dr. Hena Ahmad, Faculty Mentor
Set during the tumultuous end of Britain's reign in Sudan, author Tayeb Salih's novel Season of Migration to the North describes the alienating effects of Western influence on the life of his unnamed narrator. Returning home after seven years of studying abroad in London, the narrator suffers a loss of identity--not knowing how to blend his Western experience with his Sudanese roots. Playing an obsolete role in both the British-dominated capital of Sudan as well as the village of his childhood, the narrator can no longer discern which world he belongs to. Salih offers the solution of cultural hybridity--an active acceptance of a role in both Eastern and Western worlds--in order to maintain cultural identity. This paper will explore the effect of cultural ambiguity on the individual as well as the solution of cultural hybridity in order to secure one's identity.
Keywords: Identity, Isolation, Cultural Hybridity, Cultural Ambiguity, Tayeb Salih, English, Middle Eastern Studies
Topic(s):English
Middle Eastern Studies
Presentation Type: Oral Paper
Session: 308-2
Location: VH 1320
Time: 1:15