I'm reading Peter Burke's book - Cultural Hybridity which gives a useful introduction to all aspects associated with this theme.
I found some of the introductory quotes on hybridization thought provoking and applicable to my own practice:
"This process [hybridization] is particularly obvious in the domain of music... New technology - including, appropriately enough, the 'mixer' has obviously facilitated this kind of hybridization." (p3)
On the subject of hybrid texts, an analogy to borrowing cross-culturally can be found when considering the process of translation: "Equivalent effect [a term used in translation] involves the introduction of words and ideas that are familiar to the new readers but might not be intelligible in the culture in which the book was originally written... The domestication of a foreign work is poised between plagiarism and imitation." (p17)
When discussing "hybrid people" (p3, p30) Burke identifies a non-coincidental trend of theorists of hybridity having a "double or mixed cultural identity." "Homi Bhabha for instance, in an Indian who has taught in England and now lives in the USA... Edward Said, a Palastinian who grew up in Egypt and taught in the USA, described himself as 'out of place' wherever he was located." (p3)
- "Their personal experience of life in different cultures, or living between different cultures, surely underlies their concern with questions of hybridity". (p4)
I guess I am ideally placed to begin this research...
