Hybridity, nationalism and postcolonialism: an analysis of Shirley Lim's Joss and Gold

Abstract

This paper examines the elements of hybridity as seen in Shirley Urn's postcolonial sentiment and observations, and nationalistic tendencies in her novel Joss and Gold (2001 ). It also explores how the writer, who is a Chinese Peranakan, but whose first language is English, has adopted and utilized the colonial language in a quest to create a new entity as a tool to investigate and create awareness of literary, social, and political development in post-independent Malaysia by looking at the assimilation and hybridity of the English language in her work. Further analysis is on how the writer deals with racial tension, racial intolerance, and cultural prejudices in multiethnic Malaysia. This paper concludes that through her novel, Shirley Lim is able to establish the fact that the use of the English language (once a colonial language) is no longer a means to control or colonize or subjugate, and in the quest for attaining national culture, no one culture should be given a priority. It is the idea of Malaysia where its people are not categorised by race, or religion, but by just a simple uniting word, Malaysia that is of utmost importance.