"Third space," "hybridity," "mimicry," or "translation": Homi K. Bhabha, one of the most influential and innovative postcolonial theorists of the present day, shapes both dazzling and presupposition-rich metaphors for a new way of thinking about cultural contact and cultural mixtures. His highly theorized reflections are fed by theory and art: on the one hand, Bhabha locates his thinking in postcolonial, poststructuralist literary and cultural theory; on the other hand, he draws inspiration from literary and artistic artifacts and gains new images of thought from them.