A term used in contemporary Postcolonial Studies to theorize and to a certain degree celebrate a global state of mixedness---a mixedness of cultures, races, ethnicities, nations, and so on. The term is drawn from biology, where it is used to describe the intermingling of different strains or species of plants and animals to produce ânewâ species (the mule, which is the offspring of a donkey and horse, is a perfect example of a hybrid). Interestingly, in colonial and imperial discourse of the nineteenth century, the term hybridity carried negative connotations and was used primarily to signal what the âwhiteâ races had to fear if miscegenation was left unchecked. Its meaning has effectively been reversed. In part, this is because an alternative affirmative use of the term is available in the work of Russian literary critic and theorist Bakhtin, Mikhail, who uses it in the development of his key concepts of the carnivalesque and dialogism. Today, the term is probably most closely associated with Bhabha, Homi, who uses the term to stress the interdependence of colonizer and colonized, and to therefore argue that one cannot claim a âpurityâ of racial or national identity. All identity, he maintains, is produced in a kind of pastiche, which is âin betweenâ the subject and their idealized other. The term is not without its critics, however, even from within Postcolonial Studies: Aijaz Ahmad, Chandra Talpade Mohanty, and Benita Parry have all offered critiques of the term on the grounds that it is idealist and doesnât accurately reflect the reality on the ground (in other words it doesnât pass what Toni Morrison has wittily described as the âtaxi testâ, i.e. a hybrid identity might be fine in theory but will a taxi still stop for you?). These critics rightly point out that hybridity is too often used simply to uncritically describe a state of being, rather than analyse it. However, Nestor Garcia Canclini also offers a utopia account of this term, which suggests a far greater depth than Ahmad, Parry, and Mohanty are prepared to credit. Further Reading: A. Ahmad In Theory: Classes, Nations, Literatures (1992). H. Bhabha The Location of Culture (1994). R. Young Colonial Desire (1995). N. Garcia Canclini Hybrid Cultures (1995).