The Hyphenated Self: Immigrant Identity in Contemporary American Fiction
Sr No:
Page No:
32-34
Language:
English
Authors:
Prof. Awadh Kishor Pandey*
Received:
2024-12-29
Accepted:
2025-01-16
Published Date:
2025-01-21
Abstract:
Contemporary American fiction has increasingly focused on the experiences of
immigrants negotiating identity in multicultural societies. The notion of the “hyphenated self”
encapsulates the dual or multiple identities experienced by immigrants who simultaneously
belong to two or more cultures. This paper examines how contemporary American novelists
represent immigrant identity through themes of displacement, cultural hybridity, memory,
language, assimilation, and belonging. Drawing upon postcolonial theories of identity, diaspora
studies, and cultural criticism, the study analyses selected works by Jhumpa Lahiri,
Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie, Viet Thanh Nguyen, and Mohsin Hamid. These writers portray
immigrant identity as fluid rather than fixed, revealing the complexities of negotiating cultural
inheritance while adapting to new social realities. The paper argues that contemporary
American fiction challenges essentialist notions of national identity and instead celebrates
hybridity as a defining feature of modern multicultural America.
Keywords:
Immigration, Hyphenated Identity, Diaspora, Cultural Hybridity, American Fiction, Multiculturalism.