The following quotation is taken from Elizabeth Laragy’s page on “hybridity” in Wikipedia; the page references are to Bill Ashcroft et al., The Post Colonial Reader. And this blog is an open invitation, particularly to our colleagues in Oshawa
The term hybridity has been most recently associated with Homi Bhabha . In his piece entitled ‘Cultural Diversity and Cultural Differences', Bhabha stresses the interdependence of coloniser and colonised. Bhabha argues that all cultural systems and statements are constructed in what he calls the ‘Third Space of Enunciation'. [6] In accepting this argument, we begin to understand why claims to the inherent purity and originality of cultures are ‘untenable'. Bhabha urges us into this space in an effort to open up the notion of an inter national culture “not based on exoticism or multi-culturalism of the diversity of cultures [sic], but on the inscription and articulation of culture's hybridity. ” [7] In bringing this to the next stage, Bhabha hopes that it is in this space “that we will find those words with which we can speak of Ourselves and Others. And by exploring this ‘Third Space', we may elude the politics of polarity and emerge as the others of ourselves”. [8]
I find this citation from Bhabha strangely apt when thinking about the Academic Plan and Trent in Difficult important questions we all need to answer.
