Cultural Hybridity in Orwell’s Burmese Days

Abstract

This research is the analysis of George Orwell’s novel Burmese Days to examine the cultural hybridity that is the phenomenon of the contact zone between the colonial and native values in colonial Burma during British Raj. In the novel, there are plenty of instances to highlight the ambivalent and hybrid psychological positions of the characters. Flory, a colonial timber merchant mingles with the Indian doctor Veraswami and criticizes his own colonial values. He shows ample sympathy to the native values highlighting the ambivalence and hybridity. Doctor Veraswami, on the other hand, blindly adores the European values and rates the English values as the far more superior to the native values, being a native himself. He demonstrates the considerable amount of mimicry to the colonial values as well as ambivalent and hybrid psychological positionality. Both the characters put the colonial values and authority into jeopardy with their position in-betweenness the native and the colonial values.