LANGUAGE IN INDIA

Strength for Today and Bright Hope for Tomorrow

Volume 16:5 May 2016
ISSN 1930-2940

Managing Editor: M. S. Thirumalai, Ph.D.
Editors: B. Mallikarjun, Ph.D.
         Sam Mohanlal, Ph.D.
         B. A. Sharada, Ph.D.
         A. R. Fatihi, Ph.D.
         Lakhan Gusain, Ph.D.
         Jennifer Marie Bayer, Ph.D.
         G. Baskaran, Ph.D.
         L. Ramamoorthy, Ph.D.
         C. Subburaman, Ph.D. (Economics)
         N. Nadaraja Pillai, Ph.D.
         Renuga Devi, Ph.D.
         Soibam Rebika Devi, M.Sc., Ph.D.
Assistant Managing Editor: Swarna Thirumalai, M.A.

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A Thematic Analysis of a Few Select Novels of
Bharati Mukherjee

Ms. K. S. Dhivya, Ph.D. Scholar
Dr. K. Ravindran

Abstract

This paper is a thematic analysis of a few select novels of Bharati Mukherjee. Diasporic literature, especially Indian Diasporic literature is the result of colonization and decolonization, the period in Indian history in which a large number of Indian people migrated to other countries either through colonization or by their need for work. Diaspora dream figures are found prominently in all the fiction of Bharati Mukherjee covering many moods of expatriation - nostalgia, frustration, uncertainty and despondency. In her novels, she explores the theme of expatriation, immigration and transformation. The protagonist of the novel The Tiger’s Daughter, Tara Banerjee Cartright is an autobiographical presentation of Mukherjee. There is a strange fusion of the American and Indian in the psyche of Tara. She can take refuge neither in her old Indian self nor in the newly discovered American self. By analyzing the novel, one can understand how the first generation immigrant suffers in an alien country. Jasmine has achieved a proper identity and balance between tradition and modernity in the concluding part of the novel. Leave It to Me (1997) reveals the protagonist’s ungrateful interaction with the kind adoptive parents and a vengeful search for her real parents. It also looks at the conflict between Eastern and Western worlds and mother-daughter relationships through the political and emotional topics by the main character in her quest for revenge. The expatriate and the immigrant are important figures in Mukherjee’s writing because she uses them to integrate spatial location and dislocation.

Keywords: Diasporic literature, the Expatriate, the Immigrant, mother-daughter relationship, Colonization

Identity – Important Issue in Diasporic Literature

Identity is an important issue in diasporic literature. Diasporic literature, especially Indian Diasporic literature is the result of colonization and decolonization, the period in Indian history in which a large number of Indian people migrated to other countries either through colonization or by their need for work. The migrated people began to face different problems as they were indifferent to the culture of other countries, which lead them to search for their own identity.

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

Ms. K. S. Dhivya M.A., M.Phil., PGD.M.T., D.C.A.
Ph.D. Scholar
PG & Research Department of English
Government Arts College
Coimbatore-641 018
Tamilnadu
India
dhivyasofi@gmail.com

Dr. K. Ravindran M.A., M.Ed., M.Phil., Ph.D.
Head of the Department & Associate Professor
PG & Research Department of English
Government Arts College
Coimbatore- 641 018
Tamilnadu
India
kamalravi02@gmail.com
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