COLONIAL MIMICRY AND CULTURAL IDENTITY AS TOOLS OF SUBVERTING COLONIAL LEGACY: A DECOLONIAL READING OF KAMAL’S NOVEL UNMARRIAGEABLE

Abstract

This research is an interrogation of the colonial mimicry and cultural identity as tools in subverting the colonial legacy of English language and culture in Kamal’s novel Unmarriageable (2019). It aims at exploring the performative role of colonial mimicry and its critique through cultural identity in a postcolonial society in decolonizing the minds of the natives and dismantling the dominant cultural values. The theoretical framework that informs this research is based on Ngugi wa Thiong'O’s Decolonizing the Mind: The Language of African Literature (1992) and Homecoming: Essays on African and Caribbean literature, culture and politics (1972) along with Hall’s (2015), Singh (2009), and Bhabha’s (1985) theorization of the key concepts inn this research. Ngugi’s (1992) provides the central theoretical model through which this research intends to elucidate its argument. The current research uses the method of ‘Close Reading’ for approaching and analyzing the text proposed by Nancy Frey and Douglas Fisher (2013). It allows a close interrogation of the layers of meaning embedded within a text. The findings of this research reflect the manifestation of a spirit of decoloniality in the text to subvert the colonial legacy of English language and culture through evocation of cultural identity and critique of colonial mimicry.