Traversing the Interstices: The “Doors” in Exit West through the Lens of Homi Bhabha’s Third Space Theory

Wenhui Huang; Meng Chen

doi:10.63313/LLCS.9127

Authors

Wenhui Huang iFLYTEK English Training Center, Xiongchu Campus, Wuhan 430000, China Author
Meng Chen School of Foreign Languages, Minnan Normal University, Zhangzhou 363000, China Author

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.63313/LLCS.9127

Keywords:

Homi Bhabha, Third Space, Mohsin Hamid, Exit West

Abstract

Drawing on Homi Bhabha’s “Third Space” theory, this article examines the imagery of “doors” in Mohsin Hamid’s Exit West. In the novel, “doors” serve as symbolic thresholds to the “Third Space”, thrusting the protagonists into a series of “interstitial” zones and forcing them into arduous cultural negotiation. The analysis of their divergent paths reveals that “hybridity” is not a harmonious fusion but a dynamic construction fraught with alienation and pain. The dissolution of their relationship proves that this identity reconstruction is a painful “rebirth” predicated on sacrifice. While illustrating Bhabha’s theory, the novel also provides a literary reflection on its abstraction through meticulous realistic depiction.

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