Globalization and Multiculturalism: Defining the New Universalism in Selected Texts of Samuel Selvon, V. S. Naipaul and Anita Desai

Culture and ideology have blended together such that language traditions; imagery, myths and beliefs have been integrated into literary works. Cultural boundaries have been broken and borders have become elastic such that culture as a means of survival has become transnational and translational. Thus a hybrid culture has evolved and multiculturalism seems to have moved beyond the mere combination and cohabitation of different cultures to describe the growing phenomenon of cultural annihilation which results from the collision of cultures producing the first signs of a future universal culture. The birth of this universal culture passes inevitably through the ideological flux that characterizes this age of globalization. What are the social, political and economic implications of the elements of cultural plurality in a developing country? Is a nation a mere geographical expression? We argue that an outward-looking cultural identity?one that rejects the fixities of locality and embraces the fluidity of the universal?makes cultural diversity not only more acceptable but also desirable; in that cultural identity makes global polity more acceptable.