'Postcolonial' con-texts: Re-inventing asianness

ABSTRACT 'PostcoloniaP Con-Texts: Re-inventing Asianness Berkem Gürenci M. A. In American Culture and Literature Advisor: Assist. Prof. Dr. Laurence Raw June, 2002 As the term of 'postcolonial literature' has been applied to a large group of texts, 'Postcolonialism' has in many ways become an umbrella term that led to a generalisation of experience. This thesis, through the analyses of Hanif Kureishi's The Buddha of Suburbia and Bharati Mukherjee's Jasmine proceeds on the assumption that no two pieces of work even from the same context, can be said to reflect common experience. Even though Hanif Kureishi and Bharati Mukherjee have both been considered "postcolonial" authors reflecting 'common experiences' and hybridities in their literature, their representation of multiculturalism in Great Britain and the United States attests to the importance of individual experience in the construction of identity in their novels. Keywords: Postcolonialism, Multiculturalism, Hybridity, Hanif Kureishi, Bharati Mukherjee m