| This thesis argues that the theories and academic field of postcolonial studies must be reconsidered and redefined in order to reflect how diasporic literature such as Chinese-Canadian author Wayson Choy's novels and memoir recontextualizes postcolonial critic Homi Bhabha's concepts of mimicry, hybridity and agency. Choy localizes and in a sense appropriates Bhabha's theories to show how they alter and become increasingly complex according to multicultural dynamics and intercultural exchange, in which there may be multiple colonizing influences upon the figure of the colonized or the diasporic Chinese-Canadian subject. Choy's literature contends with pressing postcolonial concerns and critiques as raised by Bhabha's critics. In doing so, Choy reinvigorates and advances the debate on postcolonialism's breadth, applicability, and relevance to modern diasporic, ethnic, subaltern or colonized peoples and literature. |
