Linguistic Mirrors and Fractured Selves: Reflecting Cultural Hybridity in Shamsie’s Burnt Shadows

Abstract

This study analyzes the relationship between identity creation and code-switching in Kamila Shamsie's Burnt Shadows from a sociolinguistic perspective. The study employs a quantitative research methodology based on a self-designed questionnaire administered among 50 multilingual participants to investigate language behavior in the real world, with an emphasis on how language switching functions as a tool for inclusion, exclusion, and resistance. The findings indicate that participants often associate several languages with distinct facets of their identities, much like the multilingual and transnational experiences of the characters in the book, such as Hiroko, Raza, and Kim. Code-switching is shown to be both a pragmatic linguistic choice and a symbolic act of negotiating cultural affiliation and self-representation. This research contributes to broader discourses on language, identity, and postcolonial mobility by comparing the sociolinguistic realities of contemporary multilingual speakers with Shamsie's literary depictions of displaced and hybrid identities.