American Fictionism In 'The Namesake' By Jhumpa Lahiri

Jhumpa lahiri (1967), born of Bengal parents, was awarded Pulitzer Prize for fiction in 2000 for her debut collection of short stories entitled “Interpreter of Maladies”, (1999). Her very first novel “The Namesake” (2003) made her more popular. Her second short story collection “Unaccustomed Earth” (2008) has again established her as one of the most excellent and commendable fictionists of the world. Not only a Diaspora writer of Indian origin, but she can also be called an American writer, because of her constant obsession with the American way of life. Her narrative world shuttles between India and the U.S.A. The imbibing of influences of various past or contemporary authors and her excellent narrative technique establish her as one

Within the framework of familial lives of Bengali immigrants in the U.S, the novel explores and exposes the deep schisms behind the veneer of equality and uniformity in America, marked by its shopping malls, suburban housing, etc to a more poignant and startling cultural depths – a hiatus too wide to bridge. However, it is in The Namesake, her first novel that a sustained attempt is made to deal with these concerns of two generations of an immigrant Indian family. What emerges at the end of this deeply psychological study is the hybridity and luminal existence of the diasporic community, what with the ubiquitous conflict between strong ethnic ties and a matching resolve to settle down in the New World. In the process, the feeling of ‘neither there nor here’ spills over into the lives of the second generation also. It is a deeply moving and finely wrought family drama centred around the Ganguli couple, first generation Indian immigrants, whose experiences in the U.S. are pitted against those of their children, complicated further by the choice of name for their son-all of which leads to the clash of cultures resolving into a sense of hybridity and