Abstract

Hybrid identities occupy a unique space within the field of identity and culture. Due to the instability and transitory nature of hybrid identities, individuals who fall within the category of hybridity often struggle to recognize and accept their identities. Do such individuals identify with one culture, the other, neither, or both? Adriana Lisboa’s novel Rakushisha offers new insight into the realm of hybridity through the exploration of mujōkan, a uniquely Japanese awareness of impermanence that also helps to explain the cycle of suffering, continuity, and regeneration that Lisboa’s characters experience. Although hybrid identities by nature are unstable, constantly in motion and imbalanced, mujōkan presents a conceptual framework that allows for the possibility of accepting this instability and impermanence as a way of being, allowing Japanese-Brazilians to untangle the web of uncertainty surrounding their identity and embrace the transience of their culture and hybridity. Lisboa’s novel and the concept of mujōkan work together to show not only the possibility of Japanese-Brazilians to accept and understand the transitivity of their identity but also to expand this concept to contemporary Brazilians, regardless of whether they claim Japanese heritage or not.

Degree

MA

College and Department

Humanities; Spanish and Portuguese

Rights

http://lib.byu.edu/about/copyright/

Date Submitted

2019-04-01

Document Type

Thesis

Handle

http://hdl.lib.byu.edu/1877/etd11133

Keywords

hybrid identity, Japanese-Brazilian, Adriana Lisboa, Rakushisha, Matsuo Bashō, mujōkan

Language

english

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