Hybrid Subject: Postcolonial Identity and Resistance in R. F. Kuang’s Babel

Abstract

1. F. Kuang’s novel Babel, Or the Necessity of Violence: An Arcane History of the Oxford Translator’s Revolution reimagines 1830s Oxford as a center of imperial power, where translation, through a magical system called silver-working, fuels the British Empire’s global dominance. This article employs Homi K. Bhabha’s concepts of hybridity and the “third space”, alongside Stuart Hall’s theorization of cultural identity as “becoming”, to analyze the identity formation of the protagonist Robin Swift. Tracing Robin’s trajectory from colonial subject to revolutionary agent reveals how language operates simultaneously as technology of imperial governance and potential site of resistance. Kuang’s narrative demonstrates that the hybrid subject, positioned in the interstices between cultures, possesses unique critical vision that can become subversive power.