Cultural Hybridity in a Multicultural Landscape: Acculturation in Hanif Kureishi’s The Buddha of Suburbia

Hanif Kureishi is a contemporary hybrid (half British-half Pakistani) British writer, demonstrating the most recent socio-cultural portrayal of the English society with a perspective of a culturally hybrid character in a multicultural society. His contribution to English literature as a biologically and culturally hybrid character himself is remarkable with The Buddha of Suburbia (1990), The Black Album (1995) and My Beautiful Launderette (1985), delving into multicultural labyrinths of England to unearth the secrets of neighbourhoods in London. As Kureishi’s works suggest, the readers go through the phases of multiculturalism as the four different stages suggest in acculturation theory. Assimilation, integration, separation and marginalization are all the steps that are realized through different characters in The Buddha of Suburbia. Notably, the protagonist Karim’s acculturation process is noteworthy not only because he is affected by all those four stages but also, he influences people in the dominant culture with his unique and exotic well-being. Additionally, Karim’s relationship with his father Haroon, who is a first-generation immigrant, reflect different acculturation strategies. As setting a multicultural example in the background, The Buddha of Suburbia, reminds British society that they have gone through a lot of process to live up to the standards, to have the tolerance for the ‘other’; England has not been the melting pot since the first day she received her first immigrants. Reading the work within the framework of multicultural acculturation theory, it is inevitable to see that every character has a different strategy to overcome being ‘other’ and different acculturation strategies and their own experiences of cultural adaptation contribute to the theme of multiculturalism.