OĞUZ, Ayla Gaziosmanpaşa University - Faculty of Science and Letters - Department of Western Languages and Literatures, Turkey

CULTURAL IDENTITY in GEORGE ORWELL’S SHOOTING AN ELEPHANT

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The question of identity has been one of the main issues in colonial and postcolonial literature. The very concept of ‘identity’ in a colonial society is accompanied by ambiguity. The colonial societies try to define themselves constantly. On the other hand, settlements and colonies find themselves trapped in the dilemma of discovering themselves. Tension between the dominated and dominating societies causes the emergence of new identity problems. Place and displacement, which is another major concern, also creates a postcolonial crisis of identity. For Homi K. Bhabha, all cultural statements and systems are constructed in this ambivalent space of enunciation. On the other hand, Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel explains why people change due to the dialectic related with ‘self’ and ‘other’. In Shooting An Elephant, George Orwell uses his writing to confess the inner conflict of sub-devisional, imperial police officer of a town in Burma and reflects his in-between position with references to imperialism, colonialism and cultural identiy. Therefore, this study has been carried out with references to colonial and postcolonial cultural identity problems in the light of Bhabhian and Hegelian perspectives.

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Identity , Colonialism , Ambiguity , Bhabha , Orwell , Hegel , Space , Cultural Difference , in , Betweenness , Other , Imperial

Cumhuriyet Üniversitesi Sosyal Bilimler Dergisi

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