خلاصة:
امروزه مهاجرت و پیامدهای آن که به تغییرات گسترده ای در جهان منجر شده موضوع بحث برانگیز بسیاری از گروه های دانشگاهی و مطالعاتی است. در زمینه مطالعات مهاجرت اغلب تجارب مردان مهاجر که هم چنان ادعا می شود نماینده همه مهاجران هستند، ارائه می گردد و تجربه زنان مهاجر در دیاسپورا به طور قابل توجهی نادیده انگاشته می شود. این مقاله به بررسی بخش های نادیده گرفته شده تجارب زنان در مهاجرت به عنوان فرودست می پردازد و به همگون سازی آنها در کشور میزبان مطابق با نظریه های پسااستعماری گایاتری اسپیوک تمرکز دارد. به همین منظور، رمان برجسته ی محسن حمید، خروجی غرب انتخاب شده است. این پژوهش به بررسی دقیق همانند سازی شخصیت زن این رمان در فضای بینابینی یا هیبریدی می پردازد که در نهایت موجب ایجاد هویت التقاطی در وی می گردد. اگرچه اکثر مطالعات مهاجرت بر این باورند که فضای بینابینی مهاجر را در یک موقعیت نا ممکن قرار می دهد، اما قرار گرفتن در در این فضا اثرات مثبت بر زنان مهاجر دارد. نکته ی مثبت بازسازیِ هویت التقاطی این است که سیستم های اعتقادی و ارزشی را تصفیه و اصلاح می کند، همانند سازی را تسریع می نماید و سبب تسهیل فرآیند ادغام با فرهنگ میزبان می شود. در نهایت به نظر می رسد هویت التقاطی به زنان اجازه ی حرکت آزادانه در فرهنگ های مختلف را می دهد و حس خانه و تعلق داشتن را ایجاد می کند.
IntroductionNowadays, speaking about immigration and its consequences is a controversial topic of many academic groups. The rise of postcolonialism and immigration has led to indescribable changes in world public affairs. In the field of immigration studies, the individual experiences of women in the diaspora are not significantly considered as the dominant experiences of immigrant men who are still claimed to represent all immigrants. Thus, it can become challenging to examine female migration experiences and it consequences which are ignored and overlooked. For this reason the eminent novel of Mohsin Hamid, Exit West, is chosen. This article carefully examines the consequences of assimilation of female characters in the hybridized Space.Background of the StudyAlthough assimilation to the host cultures in hybridized spaces situates migrant women in impossible situation or inbetween, the transformation of the migrant women’s identities can also become a tool to deconstruct stereotypes of third world women and patriarchal hegemonic discourse. In Exit West the main character, Nadia, is presented as the migrant woman with hybridized identity. The migrant woman is not obliged to choose between two identities, particularly between the cultural identity of the country where she comes from and that where she finds herself. In other words, both identities can co-exist in the same person, dialoguing and promoting cultural understanding. In this way immigrant woman in hybridized space is empowered to move freely between cultures and establish a sense of home and belonging even in her new places. These ideas of identity transformation and identity creation are very evident in Nadia at Exit West, portrayed as a key example of an immigrant woman whose identity is influenced by the places and cultures she encounters around the world. She feels like “vermin” at first in the host culture yet she turns to a beautiful butterfly at the end of the story.MethodologyThe present article explores the ignored parts of female experiences as subalterns in migration and it focuses on the process of their assimilation in the host countries in accordance with the Gayatri Spivak’s theories. Her intention to illustrate that the level where the subaltern could be heard or read cannot be reached because what is said is either ignored, forgotten or it simply disappears from the official, male-centered historical. As the migrant woman’s identity transforms from “somebody” to “nobody”, she further more hopelessly agonizes as she also turns from a former member of a society to someone who is just “the Other”. This predicament of otherness is a universal reality among migrant women as they do not only experience it from people whose nationalities are different from them but also from men with whom they share similar race or background.ConclusionThe idea that female migrants consider their identities as multiple or fluid is a key theme in literary representations of the female migrant experiences in the novel, Exit West. The key point to consider is that such representations of the experience of the migrant woman underlines how this shift in identity does not only come in the form of a physical alteration of her body and geographical crossing of borders but, more so, in her symbolical and psychological being. Despite the number of challenging experiences for migrant women in Exit West, it does overall emphasizes on the positive impact of such migration experiences. In fact, migration is also depicted as an opportunity that opens doors for the migrant woman to be exposed to a multicultural life and to improve her quality of life.