Effect of Colonial Power on Hybridization in David Malouf’s Remembering Babylon - Summary

 

Frederick, Suresh (2021). “Effect of Colonial Power on Hybridization in David Malouf’s Remembering Babylon” (Co-author: Silvia Olives G) Journal of Language and Linguistic Studies (ISSN 1305-578X) Scopus Indexed Journal, 2512- 2518.

https://www.jlls.org/index.php/jlls/article/view/4215/1204

Summary

In “Effect of Colonial Power on Hybridisation in David Malouf’s Remembering Babylon”, Frederick and Olives examine how colonial dominance shapes hybrid identities in Malouf's novel. They argue that colonial power exerts profound influence on both colonisers and colonised, impacting perception, language, and belonging. The paper positions colonial practices not only as political or economic impositions but also as tools that restructure cultural identities and social norms, creating hybrid subjectivities that blur binaries of “wild” versus “civilised”, “Other” versus self, and linguistic appropriation versus autonomy.

The authors analyse how Malouf deploys narrative techniques to portray hybridisation as a complex, often conflicted process. Characters like Gemmy, who has assimilated into Aboriginal life, yet returns to settler society, embody this fluid identity. Gemmy’s cultural hybridity unsettles both worlds and foregrounds friction between imposed colonial norms and lived indigenous experience.

Frederick and Olives highlight key colonial mechanisms like control over language, land appropriation, and the framing of the “Other” as central to understanding identity transformations. They draw on postcolonial theorists such as Homi Bhabha and Frantz Fanon to illuminate how hybrid identities are neither wholly coloniser nor colonised but occupy an interstitial space shaped by power, memory, and resistance.

Through this lens, Frederick and Olives interpret Remembering Babylon not simply as a story of cultural encounter but as a meditation on how colonial structures enforce hybridity, and conflict. They argue that the novel critiques colonial logic by exposing how land ownership, language control, and cultural othering fragment identity, while also creating potential for reconciliation and new subjectivities.

Key points highlighted:

·        Colonial power reshapes individual and collective identities through cultural and linguistic pressures.

·   Hybridisation acts as both effect and critique of colonial hegemony.

·        Characters inhabiting hybrid spaces challenge binaries and illustrate postcolonial liminality.

·        Malouf’s narrative invites readers to question notions of purity, ownership, and cultural authority.

Frederick and Olives conclude that Remembering Babylon serves as a nuanced critique of colonial impact, offering a layered portrayal of hybrid identities as inherently unstable yet potentially transformative.