Representation of Muslim Adolescent and Hybrid Identity in Australian Muslim Teen Narratives

Abstract

This study examines how Muslim adolescent identity is constructed, negotiated, and represented in Australian young adult literature within a multicultural and postcolonial context. Drawing on postcolonial theory, particularly Bhabha’s concept of hybridity and the “third space,” and Hall’s notion of identity as a process of becoming, the research adopts a qualitative textual analysis. The data sources are two young adult Australian novel: Does My Head Look Big In This (2005) by Randa Abdel Fattah and The Tribe (2014) by Michael Mohammed Ahmad.The findings reveal that Muslim identity is fluid and continuously negotiated through the interplay of religious commitment, family expectations, and national belonging. Both novels articulate the Muslim adolescent’s identity differently through their narrative strategy. The first novel articulates an adaptive Muslim adolescent’s identity, yet resist stereotyping. While the second novel shows a fragmented Muslim identity and confirm liminality in their community. The result also shows that cultural hybridity emerges as both a narrative strategy in the first novel as well as a lived experience in the second novel. The study accentuates literature as a critical space for challenging dominant discourses and rearticulating Muslim youth identity in contemporary Australia.