The Notions of Mimicry and Ambivalence in Rubai el-Madhoun's Fractured Destinies

Abstract

The present study aims to offer a postcolonial reading of Rubai el-Madhoun's Fractured Destinies (2015). The researcher does a careful observation of the novel within the conceptual framework of postcolonial criticism based on the prominent post-colonial critic Homi Bhabha’s theories of ambivalence and mimicry.  These concepts explore el-Madhoun's protagonist, Ivana Ardakian, a Palestinian girl who deeply subjugates to the western culture during the British Mandate era over Palestine and its aftermath. The study traces actions, behaviours of the cultural interactions between the coloniser and the colonized. Ardakia moves between two opposite cultures and two distant geographical regions. She elopes with her lover from Palestine towards Britain. And she, therefore, locates herself in what Homi Bhabha calls an ambivalent site. Ultimately, the protagonist does not belong to either one of the two cultures, places and affiliations.