Liminality and Postcolonial Subjectivity: The Case of Female Garment Workers in Bangladesh

Abstract

Homi K. Bhabha’s concepts of liminality and hybridity are widely discussed in literary theory and postcolonial scholarship. Drawing on Bhabha’s formulation of these concepts, this paper examines how Bangladeshi female garment workers, as colonial subjects, negotiate, assimilate into, and respond to the dominant culture of the colonizer. I argue that recognizing the liminal space between Western apparel brands and Bangladeshi female garment workers allows for an intersectional analysis of women’s agency and opens possibilities for meaningful material changes in their lives. A common criticism of Bhabha’s notions of liminality and hybridity is that they are overly abstract, overlook material conditions, and obscure the historical processes through which the identities of colonized subjects are formed. Challenging this critique, this paper demonstrates that Bangladeshi female garment workers do not erase their histories or rural life experiences when constructing hybrid identities within factory and metropolitan spaces. Rather, their experiences reveal how liminal spaces operate in concrete social and economic contexts. In this way, the paper offers an empirical illustration of Bhabha’s concept of liminal space through the lived experiences of female garment workers in Bangladesh.

The authors' abstract, as published at the source. TEXTILE, 2026 · DOI ↗