Depiction of Shifting Identities in Yvonne Owuor's Dust and The Dragonfly Sea

Abstract

Individuals in culturally plural environments form and shift their identities in various ways to co-exist and survive in new localities. These identity changes, especially in the diaspora, result from intermingling culturally diverse individuals in a quest for self-emancipation. This paper seeks to explore how contemporary travelling writers depict the complicated process of identity formation and shifting identities of various characters in new physical and non-physical spaces. This study relies on data from Yvonne Owuor's works, The Dragonfly Sea and Dust. As advanced by Fanon and Bhabha, post-colonial literary theory – cultural hegemony and counter emancipation discourse, cultural hybridisation, and exploration of the third space of cultural enunciation underpin this literary analysis. The study, through Ajany and Ayaana, the protagonists in Dust and The Dragonfly Sea, respectively, concludes that individuals in culturally plural environments are constantly involved in shifting their identities to fit in.