New Names, New Identities: A ‘Double Consciousness' Reading of Bulawayo's We Need New Names

Abstract

This paper explores identity crises in No Violet Bulawayo's novel, We Need New Names. The paper relies on Mimicry and Double Consciousness theory to advance its arguments. Data for the study consists of textual evidence in the book of how characters, who are African migrants in America want to, or are forced to, live a certain way of life in order to fit into the scheme of things of the European. The study approaches identity in the book from two different perspectives. It makes a distinction between the identity change that was forced on the colonised, and the one that the colonised willing chased and run after. Data of the study is analyzed from three different perspectives. It analyses language as an agent of double consciousness for the colonized, double consciousness itself as portrayed in the novel, and finally draws on the metaphorical and connotative use of the phrase ‘'New Names'. The paper concludes that since we are living in a world of constant change, a globalized world, where the notions of multiculturalism and mobility are prevailing, postcolonial subjects will  constantly find themselves unconsciously reshaping their identities to make them fit the new world order.