Cultural Hybridity in Nadeem Aslam’s Maps for Lost Lovers

Abstract

The purpose of this research article is to highlight the significance of cultural choices to establish one’s identity as well as to affirm that migrant identity is not a given but rather a product of lived reality, something always in process in a culturally hybrid world. It is to explore the ways in which Nadeem Aslam advocates hybrid world, a world in which heterogeneity and diversity are to be tolerated as sources of cultural enrichment and safe living. In Maps for Lost Lovers Nadeem Aslam has explored these matters which plague the post-colonial world marked by polarization, hybridity and assimilations.Complex phenomenon of cultural hybridity in post-colonial era provides the background to this study. Three aspects of cultural identity will be focused regarding hybridity: individual migrants, post-colonial history and Language. In review of literature critical approaches towards cultural hybridity and work of Nadeem Aslam have been explored in context of the topic. Homi k Bhabha’s The Location of Culture (1994) provides the undercurrent to this work.

Keywords: Post-colonial, Migrants, Culture, Hybridity.