"YOU ARE GOOD AND STRONG AND MODERN GIRL FROM CROSSBREEDING": THE HYBRIDISING NATURE OF IDENTITY IN THE NOVELS OF RUTH OZEKI

Abstract

This thesis examines the way in which Ruth Ozeki attempts to negotiate her mixed race identity through her fictional works. This thesis argues that she makes use of the concept of “hybridity”, a concept often used as an interpretative tool for analysing people whose identities fall across various racial categories, to negotiate her identity vis-à-vis her community and environment. While Ozeki’s first novel engages with the traditional definition of hybridity, her understanding of the concept evolves in her next two novels, taking into greater account the influence of transnational forces on the identities of both the mixed race subjects and non-mixed raced subjects who have interacted with others of a different nationality, culture and race. I argue that this broadens the definition of the term hybridity from one that applies only to mixed race subjects to one that is now applicable to all people, in light of the increasingly transnational world and the power of fiction to exert influence on the identities of people. Ozeki’s changing understanding of hybridity is greatly influenced by her belief in the Buddhist notion of no-self. She employs this concept to negotiate her identity as one that is ever-evolving, subject to the various forces of influences in her environment. Ultimately, this thesis argues that people’s identities have long been culturally hybridised despite the narrow confines of the term that has limited its usage to refer to racial hybridity. This is due to the great influence that a person’s environment plays in their hybridisation of their identity.