MOTIVATIVE LINES OF A MULTICULTURAL PORTRAIT OF THE ENGLISH DISCOURSE OF POSTCOLONIALISM
Abstract
The article provides an in‑depth examination of the key postcolonial features that shape the multicultural portrait of contemporary English literary discourse. It not only outlines the theoretical foundations of postcolonialism but also demonstrates how these conceptual frameworks influence the works of S. Rushdie, H. Qureshi, S. Selvon, M. Ondaatje, C. Phillips, and Z. Smith, whose writings collectively reflect the transformative dynamics of modern British multiculturalism. Postcolonial literature is presented as an artistic platform that enables a profound rethinking of identity, hybridity, migration processes, and racial and transnational interactions within the rapidly changing socio-cultural space of London. Through the representation of decolonisation trauma, tensions between the Self and the Other, the lingering presence of historical memory, and the impact of religious collisions, these writers reveal the complex interplay between individual experience and traditional communal frameworks. From a linguocultural perspective, the study highlights linguistic hybridity, the integration of untranslatable lexemes, and the presence of transnational codes as defining markers of contemporary postcolonial discourse. These linguistic strategies emphasise the fluidity of cultural borders and the multiplicity of identity formations characteristic of diasporic communities. The narratives of the examined authors reconstruct long‑term intergenerational links within immigrant families, showing multiculturalism not as an abstract ideological notion but as an everyday social practice embedded in the urban fabric of London. Such portrayals underscore the lived reality of hybrid communities, whose daily interactions, negotiations, and conflicts shape modern British cultural life. The article ultimately stresses the importance of applying a cognitive‑interpretive approach to postcolonial texts, proposing it as a productive methodological direction for expanding philological research and deepening the understanding of multicultural dynamics in contemporary English literature.
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