THE TRANSFORMATION OF NATIONAL IDENTITY AND CULTURAL MEMORY IN POSTCOLONIAL BRITISH LITERATURE

Abstract

The article examines the transformation of the concepts of national identity and cultural memory in British literature during the postcolonial period. Beginning in the second half of the twentieth century, alongside the collapse of the British Empire, the notion of Britishness began to be redefined. The inclusion of diverse ethnic and cultural groups within the literary space transformed national identity into a more multifaceted, dynamic, and memory-based construct. The study offers a comparative analysis of postcolonial theories (E. Said, S. Hall, H. Bhabha) and the role of folklore and collective memory in the preservation of national identity (M. Kazimoglu-Imanov, B. Anderson). Analyses of the works of writers such as Salman Rushdie, V. S. Naipaul, and Zadie Smith reveal that postcolonial British literature presents national identity not as a fixed category, but as a dynamic process reconstructed through memory, language, and cultural experience.