Poetry · Theme
Identity and Hybridity
How Poetry develops Identity and Hybridity.
The book explores fragmented, hybrid identities through characters like Ova (Anglo-Jewish), Exodus (Hungarian Jew in England), and Esau, examining the clash between racial, cultural, and national inheritances and the struggle for self-definition.
Where it surfaces
- To You
The figure is 'made hybrid-negro,' embodying a fractured, composite identity.
- Giovanni Franchi
Giovanni Franchi's identity is a pale imitation of Bapini's, caught between adolescence and adulthood, and the woman's composite 'threewomen' self reflects fragmented, hybrid instincts.
- XIII
The poem's central conflict revolves around the dissolution of the self ('Disorb inviolate egos') and the merging of two individuals into a single, undifferentiated entity, questioning the boundaries of identity.
- Anglo-Mongrels and the Rose
Ova is a 'mongrel' child of Jewish and English heritage, caught between her father's foreignness and her mother's Englishness. The chapter explicitly curses her with a 'Jewish brain' and an Anglo-Israelite composite identity.
- Exodus
Exodus navigates between his Jewish heritage and English society, feeling neither fully belonging.
- English Rose
Exodus's identity as a 'Hebrew' and 'alien' courting a 'gentile' English rose highlights cultural and religious hybridity, with his 'Mosaic passions' clashing against English etiquette.
- Mongrel Rose
Ova's 'mongrel' heritage as a composite Anglo-Israelite is central, with her Jewishness a source of conflict and her mother's rejection of it.
- Ada Gives Birth to Ova
The infant Ova is portrayed as a 'composite Anglo-Israelite,' blending Jewish and British racial birthrights, with a 'mongrel heart' and a 'Jewish brain,' emphasizing hybrid identity.