East, West: Hybrid Identities of Women on the Margins of Modernity

Abstract

This paper compares the novel Nove by Jelena J. Dimitrijević and the short stories “Separation” and “After Separation” by Feng Yuanjun, focusing on their protagonists, Fatma and Naihua. The introduction provides an overview of the authors’ lives and work, highlighting their efforts to give voice to women during periods of intense social transformation and the formation of national identities – an endeavor that inevitably exposed them to criticism. Dimitrijević portrays a Turkish woman on the eve of the Young Turk Revolution, while Feng Yuanjun depicts a Chinese woman in post-dynastic China. After a brief presentation of the works, the paper identifies the central similarities relevant to the analysis. Both protagonists come into contact with Europe, a contact mediated either through formal education or the presence of European teachers. At the same time, both characters are confined – Fatma institutionally (in the harem), and Naihua temporarily, through physical restriction as a form of punishment. Yet, both confinements stem from the same underlying structure: patriarchal control over women’s bodies and choices. Consequently, both heroines yearn for Europe and perceive it as a refuge of freedom, primarily understood as the freedom to choose their own partners. This desire represents their most significant form of resistance to the patriarchal communities in which they live. These complex stories lead to an inner division within the heroines, who realize that two opposing sides, two identities, are struggling within them. For this reason, the analysis is grounded in Homi Bhabha’s theory of hybrid identities and Biljana Dojčinović’s concept of deep transgression. The notion of hybridity is employed to shed light on the process of identity construction in characters torn between traditional and modern cultural models. At the same time, in order to show that hybrid positions are not necessarily empowering (on the contrary), the study relies on the concept of deep transgression, which underscores the impossibility of integrating such identities into society. Additionally, Kimberlé Crenshaw’s concept of intersectionality is employed as an analytical tool to highlight the protagonists’ multiple forms of oppression. Their oppression does not stem solely from gender, but from the intersections of gender, cultural, and geopolitical positioning. As a confirmation of this pattern, the paper also incorporated an analysis of Marjane Satrapi’s graphic novel Persepolis. Examining the lives of the protagonists demonstrates that their hybrid identities produce an irreconcilable inner split, which, in such societies, inevitably leads to tragedy. The study concludes that neither Fatma nor Naihua belongs to any established category; they cannot be accommodated within East or West, tradition or modernity, but remain “outsiders“ in every social context. In their attempts to fit in, they undergo ethical, political, and identity negotiations, but these prove futile, as the solution lies not in the transformation of the individual, but in the transformation of society as a whole. Their longing for freedom and for Europe is revealed as a utopian project that generates irresolvable conflicts. Thus, while hybrid identity carries within itself a subversive potential – as shown through the cases of these protagonists – it ultimately fails to find grounding in societies undergoing early and unstable processes of modernization.