Hybridity, colonial gaze, and gendered identity in Oroonoko
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Date
2025
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UMT, Lahore
Abstract
The research aims to explore the complex themes of race, gender, hybrid identity, and colonial gaze with the application of Homi K. Bhabha‟s hybridity on Oroonoko. The dissertation aims to uncover the racial oppression and gender objectification through the analysis of the characters Oroonoko and Imoinda. This research is grounded in Homi K. Bhabha‟s postcolonial theory of hybridity, which interrogates the fluid, in-between spaces of identity formed under colonial influence. By applying Bhabha‟s concepts such as mimicry, ambivalence, and cultural hybridity, the study analyzes how colonial power disrupts stable identities and contributes to psychological and social fragmentation. The gender discrimination violated the rights of women, and women were silenced under the patriarchal society and colonial regime in 17th-century Europe and Africa. The textual analysis of Oroonoko examines the influence of colonialism on the narrator and the characters. The thesis also intends to discover the role of hybrid identity in making Oroonoko elevate his social status or the cause of his decline and eventual death. Oroonoko informs the readers about the immoral and unethical slave trade of the 17th century, which destroyed the lives of thousands of Blacks and resulted in racial othering and gendered voicelessness.