On Hybridity In John Bull’s Other Island

George B. Shaw (1856-1950) enjoys a worldwide fame as an Anglo-Irish writer. He grew up in Ireland and spent the rest of his life in England. John Bull’s Other Island, Shaw’s only "Irish" play, is mainly set in Rosscullen-a small town in Ireland. So far, there have been rare researches on it in China. Foreign scholars focus on Shaw’s artistic ideas and writing techniques employed in John Bull, criticizing the colonizer’s oppression of the colonized. In addition, some study it from the perspective of post-colonialism. This thesis aims to interpret the hybridity in it on the basis of Homi K. Bhabha’s theory of hybridity.Realism and Fabianism are two main clues in most of Shaw’s works, but the manifestation modes vary in his works. In John Bull, Shaw successfully combines the hybridity in the protagonists’identities, the hybridity in destiny and the hybridity in the author’s attitudes. This play begins with the event that "a native Englishman decides to develop Rosscullen". It successfully draws wide attention to the backward colony, and shows us how "the other" mercilessly oppresses the locals and achieves his dream in an amusing but thought-provoking atmosphere. This play centers on hybridity, which makes it highly structured. This helps highlight the theme of this play and clearly shows the author’s stance.This thesis consists of three parts. The first part is largely made up of a brief introduction to George B. Shaw and John Bull, the literature review at home and abroad, and a concise introduction to the source and literary value of Homi K. Bhabha’s theory of hybridity. The second part is the body, which is composed of three chapters. Chapter One explores the hybridity in the protagonists’identities in this play. Shaw maintains that there is no difference between the British and the Irish, so their stereotypical stage images may be opposite to their true personalities. The protagonists, Doyle and Broadbent, both possess hybrid identities. Chapter Two reveals Hybridity in the Local’s Attitudes:both criticizing the colonialist policy and recognizing the capitalist economy. Shaw both criticizes Ireland’s internal rulers and meanwhile sympathizes with poor Irish people. Chapter Three interprets hybridity in destiny concerning Broadbent and Rosscullen. In the play, Shaw finally makes a compromise between colonialism and capitalism owing to his own hybrid identity and Fabian socialism.The last part summarizes the main views of the thesis and refines the value and significance of this thesis on the whole. By interpreting the hybrid components of the play, the thesis illustrates Shaw’s thoughts as a Fabian socialist and his own double identity, which expounds the guiding clue of realism and Fabianism in John Bull.