The Postcolonial Matrix of Border Enunciation: Spatial Traumas and Discursive Fractures in How to Commit a Postcolonial Murder

Abstract

This study offers a critical postcolonial analysis of Nina McConigley’s How to Commit a Postcolonial Murder (2026), purposefully moving beyond the familiar Bhabhaian triad of mimicry, hybridity, and ambivalence to engage with Homi K. Bhabha’s more advanced concepts. By synthesizing cultural difference, the pedagogical versus performative split, the unhomely, and stereotypic fixity, this paper develops a nonlinear theoretical framework designed to decode the crises of displacement, systemic violence, and strategic narrative resistance in modern diasporic fiction. Epistemologically, the study charts how cross-cultural dialogue breaks down when the subaltern refuses to perform the role of the "Other" for the Western gaze. Discursively, it examines how the lived, performative reality of the oppressed disrupts the linear progress myths of settler colonial nationalism. Geographically, it traces the architectural uncanniness of "unhomely" spaces, where geopolitical trauma openly intrudes upon the domestic sphere. Finally, on a psychological level, it reveals how characters actively weaponize stereotypic fixity to rewrite their forced passivity into the position of agency.