A study on the question of cultural identity and third space in V.S Naipaul's & Hanif Kureishi's novels namely An Area of Darkness & The Buddha of Suburbia in the postcolonial period

Throughout the history of postcolonialism, a great number of formations came into existence due to enorm changes in colonized countries appearing in economic, political, and predominantly social aspects. Once the decolonizing period started, a growing number of people who were in colonized countries gained the chance to migrate to the West and got the opportunity to observe what they have been struggling with. This process led the way to the production of postcolonial literature as well as enabling scholars to reveal theories namely Postcolonial Theory and Third Space Theory. Edward Said and Homi Bhabha were highly influential with their postcolonial literary key terms that lead to title the situation of the colonized. Focusing more on the individual colonized migrant, Bhabha brought about several terms that described the psychological state of the colonized after and during the adaptation process to the host culture causing a new field of study called cultural identity. Hybridity, mimicry, ambivalence, unhomeliness- double consciousness, and alienation are the primary (main scrutiny leading point of this thesis) topics that will be examined through the characters of the books namely An Area of Darkness and The Buddha of Suburbia. The authors of the selected books, V.S Naipaul and Hanif Kureishi, experienced colonization differently since Naipaul later migrated to England while Kureishi was born into the say 'dominant' culture being a child of a mixed culture. The dilemmas, struggles, losses, and identity crises they faced were represented through their characters and will be also analysed in detail. Key Words: Mimicry, Unhomeliness, Ambivalence, Alienation