East-West Encounters and Cultural Hybridity in R.K. Narayan's The Guide: A Comparative Study

Abstract

This research paper explores the dynamic forces of East-West happenstances and the rise of cultural hybridity in R.K. Narayan’s The Guide. Positioning the novel inside the postcolonial outlines, the study draws upon Homi Bhabha’s “third space”, Edward Said’s discourse on Orientalism and postcolonial feminist viewpoints to understand the existed realisms, performative individualities and cooperation of tradition and modernity in Malgudi. The study discovers how characters such as Raju, Rosie and Marco are vehicles for investigating the anxious yet multiplicative space between East and West, subsequent in the hybrid identities. Comprehensive indications from the text demonstrates how Narayan attacks binaries, eventually depicting hybridity as a lived, uncertain and rehabilitative power determining postcolonial Indian prejudice and culture.