Abstract

The present article aims to analyze the themes of Anthony Burgess’s “The Right to an Answer” using Homi Bhabha’s concepts of “hybridity” and “third space.” Bhabha’s theory relies on the analysis of the dichotomy of the “self” and “other” and highlights the “mixedness” of cultures and the nature of the relationship between the colonizers and the immigrants from colonized countries. In “The Right to an Answer” Burgess provides an example of a hybrid through the character of Mr. Raj. Bhabha’s concept as a theoretical framework enables the reader to cultivate a better understanding of the main characters that are hybrids. The novel provides the reader with the opportunity to realize the identity crisis that the major characters have and to attribute that crisis to the aftermaths of colonization. The study shows that the hybrid character in the novel is a colonized British subject whose hybridity is a result of the interaction in a prescribed “third space” and whose hybrid identity ultimately results in abandonment.