SPLIT SELVES AND CULTURAL DISSONANCE: EXPLORING IDENTITY CRISES AND LEXICAL VARIATION IN THE POETRY OF MONIZA ALVI

Abstract

The present research explores the interaction of identity crises and lexical diversity in the poetry of Moniza Alvi, a British-Pakistani author whose poetry manoeuvres the intricacies of cultural displacement and gendered subjectivity. Concentrating on five poems Presents from My Aunts in Pakistan, An Unknown Girl, The Country at My Shoulder, The Wedding, and Mermaid the study uses a qualitative, postcolonial-stylistic approach based on close reading and theoretical observations drawn from Homi Bhabha's "third space," Lacanian psychoanalysis of language, and studies of diaspora. Two main aims inform the research: to examine how Alvi depicts disjointed selfhood and cultural dissonance via imagery, metaphor, and repetition; and to examine how lexical selection, code-switching, culturally specific lexis, and symbolic diction enunciate a hybrid diasporic identity. Findings reveal that Alvi’s recurring metaphors (e.g., fading henna, burdened homelands, and the trapped mermaid) and strategic use of Urdu-English vocabulary enact the emotional burden of exile, the impermanence of belonging, and the negotiation of gendered roles. The study concludes that Alvi’s poetic language does not simply depict cultural hybridity but enacts it, offering a nuanced portrayal of diasporic subjectivity in which language itself becomes a site of memory, resistance, and self-construction.