Saud Al-Sanousi's Bamboo Stalk: Deconstructing the Split Border of a Double Identity

To be in-between and to be bewildered to which country to belong is what the main character of Saud AlSanousi's Bamboo Stalk (2013) suffers from. In this novel, the main character is the son of a Kuwaiti father and a Filipina. Being confused to which country to belong shakes the basis for one's own identity and belonging. Al-Sanousi reflects the dramatic identity crisis and the bitter internal and external conflict by aggravating the obsession of belonging from inside to the outside and vice versa. To resolve his inner conflict, the main character decides to embrace the two identities together. This paper examines the significance of hybridity in the modern world. Unlike the concepts of diaspora and multiculturalism, Hybridity is paramount as it promotes togetherness-in-difference rather than disintegration and discrimination.