The Transitional World of Expatriate Writers and Hybrid Identities

Expatriate writing occupies a prominent position in the vast bridge-linking cultures and countries. It plays a key role in shaping up of new identities and defining social roles with respect to the linked cultural scenario. Being located in the category of ‘other’ affects the person's state of being and existence whole together. The dire need of social acceptance leads to a kind of split personality and eventually the person loses his/her true self. This paper seeks to analyse East, West, a 1994 anthology of short stories by Salman Rushdie. The paper traverses specifically through three distinctstories namely ‘GoodAdviceisRarer than Rubies’, ‘Atthe Auctionof RubySlippers'and‘The Courter’ belonging to each of the sections ‘East’, ‘West’ and ‘East, West’, respectively. The stories highlight the plight and trauma of a diasporic individual whose hybrid identity fails to define him in different cultural and geographical spaces. This paper attempts to define the cultural space of this ‘in-betweenness’ (Homi Bhabha) or double consciousness which contributes in defining the identity of any diasporic group or individual.