LANGUAGE IN INDIA

Strength for Today and Bright Hope for Tomorrow

Volume 22:4 April 2022
ISSN 1930-2940

Editors:
         Sam Mohanlal, Ph.D.
         B. Mallikarjun, Ph.D.
         A. R. Fatihi, Ph.D.
         G. Baskaran, Ph.D.
         T. Deivasigamani, Ph.D.
         Pammi Pavan Kumar, Ph.D.
         Soibam Rebika Devi, M.Sc., Ph.D.

Managing Editor & Publisher: M. S. Thirumalai, Ph.D.

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Diasporic Consciousness in the Writing of Chitra Banerjee, Jhumpa Lahiri and Kiran Desai - A Glimpse

Dr. V. Malar


Courtesy: www.amazon.con

Abstract

Since inception, man has always tried for a better life. Stone-age has resulted in advanced technology world-age in exploration of a better life. This quest has always enforced man to move from one place to another, often leaving his homeland. Such movements have turned into kinds of exile as dislocation from the homeland was severe and painful. Language, identity, place, home: these are all of a piece – just different elements of belonging and not-belonging” - Jhumpa Lahiri. Inspired by the vast spread of migration, immigration or emigration, Diasporic literature gained prominence in the universal literature in the backdrop of post-colonial context, simultaneously developing with post-colonial literature. The process of transplantation makes the immigrant a victim of 'rootlessness'. Today, we can say that the most important Indian writing is produced in the Diaspora by writers like Kamala Markandaya, Anita Desai, Bharati Mukherjee, Salman Rushdie, V.S. Naipaul, Vikram Seth, Amitav Ghosh, Rohinton Mistry, Chitra Banerjee Divakaruni, Jhumpa Lahiri, etc. Especially, Indian women diasporic writers have made their voice heard around the world, managed to excel in all areas of literature and achieved global recognition. These female diasporic writers exhibit their own physical and emotional conflicts in their works. Diasporic literature focuses mainly on themes like discrimination, cultural shock, identity crisis, alienation, displacement, dilemma, depression, hybridity and nostalgia.

This article explores the conflicts of cross-cultural identities and transplantation into a new culture in Jhumpa Lahiri's The Namesake, Kiran Desai's The Inheritance of Loss, and Chitra Bannerjee Divakaruni's The Mistress of Spices. The paper undertakes a comparative analysis, from the cultural and feministic points of view of the predicament of women protagonists in immigration as presented in the selected novels.

Keywords: Diaspora, diasporic literature, Jhumpa Lahiri, Kiran Desai, Chitra Banerjee Divakaruni cultural displacement, identity crisis, exile, nostalgia, alienation.

1. Introduction

Diasporic Literature is a very vast concept and an umbrella term that includes in it all those literary works written by the authors outside their native country, but these works are associated with native culture and background. In this wide context, all those writers can be regarded as diasporic writers, who write outside their country but remained related to their homeland through their works.

This is only the beginning part of the article. PLEASE CLICK HERE TO READ THE ENTIRE ARTICLE IN PRINTER-FRIENDLY VERSION.

Dr. V. Malar
Assistant Professor
Department of English, L.R.G Govt. Arts College for Women
Tirupur 641604, Tamilnadu, India
malarpetal@gmail.com
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