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ANUSHRAY SINGH
Third Spaces
Third Space Theory explains the uniqueness, peculiarity and fluidity of each
person, actor or context as “hybrid.””” Similarly, Edward Soja observes that
Third Space “breaks the First Space-Second Space dualism and comprises
such related concepts as place, location, locality, landscape, environment,
home, city, region, territory and geography.”'* Homi K. Bhabha sees this space
in comparison to Soja’s definition as spaces which act as an ambiguous area
developing when two or more individuals/cultures interact, and we analyse
them through cultural hybridity and intercultural encounters. The second¬
generation immigrants, as well as the prospering middle classes of South Asia,
experience cultural hybridity to varying degrees. Unlike the first-generation
immigrants or non-urban resident South Asians, their cultural hybridity
allows them to access and move freely between both First and the Second
spaces, and hence dissolve the distinction generally seen by the diasporic.
This cultural hybridity is a result of fluency in cultures and languages of both
their diaspora and the host. The intersection of the diaspora with that of
the Western host society leads to the construction of Third Spaces. We may
postulate that “hybrids” (the performers of South Asian-Western identities are
“authentic” interlocutors and interpreters of both the First and Second space)
are well versed in the cultural subtleties of their diaspora and the host society.
This postulation is supported by South Asian cultural participation in
popular Western culture. Many prominent filmmakers, artists and performers
of South Asian descent often use their “cultural nuance” to relay realities of
the immigrant experiences (the most common trope is growing up “brown” in
the West) between their immigrant and host cultures. These cultural nuances
implore both race and identity. Similarly, culturally hybrid citizens of any
diasporic community have enough “agency” to invite disparate characters in
our defined First and Second spaces to come together without prejudice. This
coming together is an involvement in a more robust discourse surrounding
identity, race, gender, culture, representation and art. I situate my work
within these diasporic expressions as legitimate forms to develop discourses
that see the diasporic as the authors of their own stories, experiences and
cultural identities. These forms are observed in Third Space, the sites of
construction for a South Asian diasporic identity where, “the categorization
process has a dual, performative influence on the production of identity."
I see them as an effective framework to enunciate South Asian-Western
identities and South Asian cosmopolitan ones, which are often used by
7 Homi K. Bhabha, The Location of Culture, London, Routledge, 1994, 55.
18 Sanghamitra Dalal, “Book Reviews: Communicating in the Third Space.” Transnational
Literature, 2010, 3.
1% Carsignol, “The Constuction, Mobilization and Limits”, par. 55.
* 148 +