Meera Syal, as a post-colonial writer, who shares the experience of growing up and living in an environment with a dominant English language and culture which were not hers, seems comfortable and confident with her dual identity. In the context of Syal's Anita and Me, Meena, the protagonist, is becoming a hybridized girl, by abrogation and appropriation of elements of the dominant English culture, notably the English language and culture and through particular attitudes which relegate her from marginal/subordinate positions to those reached from cross-fertilization.

Of Indian roots and culture, Syal portrays the struggle of second generation Indians to maintain the culture of their parents while carving their own identities from the English cultural landscape, the desire to be visible, to be recognized as a person rather than an ethnic stereotype. The immigrant narrative is a literary form that has been used by contemporary writers to better understand the lives of immigrants as they challenge the static images of immigration associated with previous historical eras. These immigrant narratives are vehicles for describing the immigrant experience in Great Britain through their fictional constructs.

Immigrant identity is often based on how the protagonist, Meena, develops her sense of self in relation to the host country. She has to decide to what degree she will assimilate into the host culture and to what degree she will retain her respective language and culture. As Meena tries to accommodate herself to the host culture by learning the new language and culture, yet still maintaining her original language and culture, she will have a degree of academic and social success since she is attempting to balance and endure both the social worlds with their respective identities. To what degree can such an identity adapt to a variety of shapes and forms through a process of mutual adaptation? If socially constructed, to what extent does the protagonist face British culture? Is hybridization the means to construct her new identity?

The liminal space is a hybrid space that witnesses the production rather than the reflection of cultural meaning. The negotiation of cultural identity involves the exchange of cultural performance. The novel, Syal's Anita and Me refers to the pleasures and frustrations of childhood without becoming sentimental or nostalgic, but as Meena is growing older, her dependencies and loyalties become increasingly ambivalent and conflicted. Her increasing consciousness of it compels her to renegotiate her identity and friendship. To what degree do English education and the subsequent values and norms bring alien references to the Indian family that is beginning to be affected? To what extent is the separation of the realities of the Indian family and the school milieu evident? Probably, the Indian parental hope for the well-being and financial security of Meena, as well as her adherence to English cultural customs depends on Meena's successful performance in English schooling and behavior.

English Studies Journal, Meera Syal, English Language, Cross-Fertilization, Indian Roots, English Cultural Customs, Financial Security, Indian Traditional Patterns, English Schooling, English Education, Economic Commodity, Cultural Transformation, Sociocultural Construction, Foreign Culture.