Survival and Resistance: ‘Disidentification’ in British Migrant Literature

This thesis examines different forms that ‘disidentification,’ as defined by Lisa Lowe and José Esteban Muñoz, takes in Bluebird: A Memoir by Vesna Maric and The Satanic Verses by Salman Rushdie. I further define ‘disidentification’ by narrowing down to two types that I coin ‘social disidentification’ and ‘political disidentification.’ I use ‘social disidentification’ as a model of survival and ‘political disidentification’ as a model of resistance. Throughout, I examine how the construct of multiculturalism effects the formation of migrant identities and because of this I look at which type of ‘disidentification’ the migrant will align with. By examining migrant identities and how they come to identify with some form of a British identity across both texts, I conclude that the idea of “Britishness” needs to be revised to be inclusive of all identities that make up the space of Britain rather than just including privileged identities.