A Theoretical Framework for Understanding Postcolonial Hybridity in Nigerian Prose Fiction

Homi Bhabha's theory of cultural hybridity has been enormously influential in postcolonial studies but has been critiqued for its insufficient attention to the specific economic, political, and literary-historical conditions within which cultural hybridity is produced and performed. This study developed an original theoretical framework for understanding postcolonial hybridity specifically as it operates in Nigerian prose fiction, addressing the limitations of Bhabha's general model through engagement with the particular conditions of Nigerian literary production. A theoretical construction methodology was employed, combining critical engagement with postcolonial theory (Bhabha, Spivak, Said, Ashcroft), systematic analysis of hybridity as a concept in 45 scholarly studies of Nigerian fiction, and primary textual analysis of 20 Nigerian novels selected for their representation of different geopolitical zones, historical periods, and linguistic strategies. Three original theoretical constructs are developed. The Multiplied Hybridism Model argues that Nigerian postcolonial hybridity is not a single binary coloniser-colonised mixture but a multiple process involving at least three simultaneous cultural negotiations: colonial, inter-ethnic, and global. The Theory of Strategic Hybridity proposes that Nigerian writers consciously deploy hybrid forms as political and aesthetic choices, not merely as cultural inevitabilities. The Linguistic Hierarchy of Hybridity examines how the choice between Standard English, Nigerian English, Pidgin, and indigenous languages encodes different degrees and types of hybrid positioning in the literary text. Expert review by 22 postcolonial literature scholars confirmed the framework's theoretical advance over existing hybridity models.

Keywords: postcolonial hybridity, Nigerian fiction, Bhabha, original framework, hybrid narrative