Author(s):
Nabiha Hashmi*, Maryam Tariq, Um E Rubab
Corresponding Author: biyahashmi95@gmail.com

Abstract:

In postcolonial narratives, white anxiety describes the psychological and social discomfort-white groups experience when decolonization transforms political systems and race-toppling power dynamics. Colonial history provides the foundation for this fear which appears as people fear the elimination of racial purity and cultural erosion while struggling with existential threats that now affect contemporary discussions about race. Postcolonial literature examines white anxiety through qualitative textual analysis while displaying three main relationships with this phenomenon as it appears across literary and cultural texts. The study analyzes white anxiety by using postcolonial theory together with psychoanalytic analysis to interpret ontological insecurity alongside identity crisis and opposition to decolonization movements. The analysis shows white anxiety functions as more than just postcolonial reactions because it maintains racial inequities through phantasmagorical accounts of persecution together with marginalized attitudes toward the past and irrational fear. Wide Sargasso Sea together with Disgrace and Exit West demonstrate how the identity of whiteness presents itself as unstable while dealing with declining colonial power. In addition to its findings, this study examines postcolonial denial tactics which challenge white anxiety through satirical and ironic and inverted perspectives. The research results strengthen postcolonial scholarship by proving that white anxiety responds artificially to the process of decolonization instead of representing a natural existential threat. White resistance targeted at avoiding racial and cultural shifts exists primarily as postcolonial texts offer new frameworks for understanding whiteness which surpass domination along with vulnerability. Researchers need to study present-day versions of white anxiety influenced by digital media approaches alongside political communications and worldwide migration patterns. Knowledge of such dynamics helps create inclusive self-reflective racial identities for the postcolonial world.

Keywords:
White anxiety, postcolonial narratives, identity crisis, ontological insecurity, racial hierarchy, whiteness, decolonization, postcolonial critique

Acceptance Date:
May 29, 2025

Copyright (c) 2025 Nabiha Hashmi, Maryam Tariq, Um E Rubab. Published by Falcons Journal of Advanced Research (FJAR).

This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License (CC BY 4.0) .