Chitra Banerjee Divakaruni is a renowned South Asian Diaspora writer with her ancestral roots at Bengal. The women authors of the Indian Diaspora are the artefacts of two cultures; firstly, they are unsure of their status-quo related to the mainstream and secondly in relation to their minority group; because South Asian Diaspora itself constitutes a minority discourse in respect of the canons of globalization, neo-colonialism or ‘melting pot’. Grappling with the problem of defining their identities they put their utmost effort to shift from the margin to the center. It is this location or ‘in-between’ space which has inspired the leading women writers of Indian origin in America such as Bharati Mukherjee, Jhumpa Lahiri, Kiran Narayan, Chitra …show more content…
At the core of her writing always remains the recurring presence of India, fastened with shared anguish of personal loss that generates the aesthetics of readjustment and recuperation. Her literature allows for a variety of readings such as Feminism, Transnationalism and Multiculturalism, with notions of exile, postcolonialism, and hybridity mixing with myth and magic situated at the very core of Divakaruni’s numerous narratives that would not exist without these dimensions. Queen of Dreams, is such a bewildering bewitching creation of her genius. From the title, it may sound somewhat, as probably it would going to describe as a lover’s cry for his dreamgirl, ‘swapno ki raani’, as a very popular hindi song is there; and we must know that Divakaruni has a special fondness for hindi movie songs, which recurs so many times in her narratives. It begins somewhat unexpectedly, as if in the medias-res, with the events described in a dream journal; and the description of a snake, the harbinger of death, preparing someone for her impending death; unavoidable, irresistible closeness of everything. It takes us aback as we are unable to guess what is going to be presented before us. Then chapter by chapter the story unravels itself, presenting of course, a ‘queen of dreams’, one who can interpret the dream of others and provide immediate solutions to their …show more content…
Gupta, another father- daughter relationship is found here, the relationship between Jonaki, Rakhi’s daughter and her ex-husband Sonny. The relationship between Rakhi and Sonny was another conjugal failure like Mr. And Mrs. Gupta. Sonny was a DJ and one night in a party, when he was playing the music, someone assaulted his drunken wife. This failure of protecting his wife demolished their relationship altogether. But surprisingly, he proved to be a very good father for Jonaki. He used to take her to some nearby beach houses to spend quality times with Uncle Paul, never smoked before Jonaki, and always relished the little daughter’s imaginative tales unlike her wife. How badly their conjugal relationship was, he never brought that before his daughter, nor did he take up the decision of remarriage in spite of others’ repeated advices. He also fought for the custody of his daughter, because he knew well that Rakhi, with the responsibilities of ‘Chai house’ would not be able to take proper care of their daughter. Not only that, as a son-in-law he proved worthy enough. Mrs. Gupta loved him dearly, just like his own son, and after their accident it was Sonny who brought them to the hospital, though after a few convulsions Mrs. Gupta died, but it is for his cause only a healthy relationship between Rakhi and her father had been shaped. And precisely, the ending is a happy one, his concern, care and affection for his family
...is an American by virtue but Indian due to her parent’s upbringing. That is the reason why she is referred to being an Indian-American author which she has embraced. Due to the fact Bengali marries within their caste, Lahiri married a Latin American Journalist Alberto Vourvoulias and have two sons, Octivian and Noor. After getting married, Lahiri does not feel the need to be shy about speaking in Bengali or any other language. Currently residing in Rome with her family to feel how immigrants adapt to change and to go experience what her characters and parents do in her short stories. Through writing, Lahiri has discovered the fact she belongs to both the worlds and the generations of Indian-American immigrants will change and bring intense joy. "It has been liberating and brought me some peace to just confront that truth, if not to be able to solve it or answer it.”
Jhumpa Lahiri is widely recognized as a Bengali-American author whose stories are focused on the Bengali/Indian immigrant experience. With her literary debut, she wins the 1999 O. Henry Award and the 2000 Pulitzer Prize for Fiction (1). “Interpreter of Maladies” is a short fiction story about the modern Indian Americans visiting India, which is considered a foreign country to them. Lahiri compellingly demonstrates that all types of relationships are unique and dependent on the efforts and communication of the individuals, which leads to misunderstanding between, couples and even failed relationships or marriages. The author has utilized the lack of communication
“Pleasure may come from illusion but happiness can come only of reality.” –Anonymous. Although finding pleasure by means of illusion may be effective temporarily, a relationship is incapable of flourishing without the assistance of reality. In the book Interpreter of Maladies, there are constant battles of characters escaping illusion involving Indian culture, told through short stories. Indifferent relationships will cause a couple to stray from reality and separate themselves from reaching mere happiness. In the stories, “A Temporary Matter” and “Interpreter of Maladies,” the use of alliteration and symbolism emphasize the failing relationships of Shukumar and Shoba and the two marriages of Mrs. Das and Mr. Kapasi with the common theme of
In the personal essay “Two Ways to Belong in America” by Bharati Mukherjee, Bharati and her sister,Mira, have very different views on how culture affects life. Mira thinks it is very important while Bharati does not think it is very important. Bharati becomes an American citizen while Mira does not ever want to. Mira still wears clothes from India but Bharati changed to jeans and t-shirts. Mira believes that she should not be forced to become an american citizen because she wants to move back to India after retirement. Bharati loves being an american citizen and does not want to move back to India. Mira married a man from her own culture while Bharati married a Canadian-American man. Mira still likes to speak in her native language but Bharati
A traditional extended family living in Northern India can become acquainted through the viewing of Dadi’s family. Dadi, meaning grandmother in Hindu, lets us explore her family up close and personal as we follow the trials and tribulations the family encounters through a daily basis. The family deals with the span of three generations and their conflicting interpretations of the ideal family life. Dadi lets us look at the family as a whole, but the film opens our eyes particularly on the women and the problems they face. The film inspects the women’s battle to secure their status in their family through dealing with a patriarchal mentality. The women also are seen attempting to exert their power, and through it all we are familiarized to
Her fiction dealt with the colonial India and the plight of the British communityliving there. Bharat BhushanMohanty in his book Edward W. Said’s Orientalism: A Critique opines that, “Representation constitutes the dominant theme of Orientalism” (35). Western
Maxine Hong Kingston and Jhumpa Lahiri’s literary works are mostly concerned with East and Mid-East Asians discourse in America. The lives of oriental Indians and Asians migrating to America were caught between their culture traditions that they have left behind and the newly founded American norms, thus they had to face an ongoing struggle with coming to a balance. It is this situation that some of the characters’ grapple with their identity, mainly the women. Indian and Asian woman immigrants faced the most complications when they came to the new word because back in their homelands they were condition a center way to act and uphold themselves throughout their daily lives woman, whereas men are able to find a balance because they had no restrictions
twentieth century Caribbean woman writers, are as complicated as they are vast. These authors show
Recent years have witnessed a large number of Indian English fiction writers who have stunned the literary world with their works. The topics dealt with are contemporary and populist and the English is functional, communicative and unpretentious. Novels have always served as a guide, a beacon in a conflicting, chaotic world and continue to do so. A careful study of Indian English fiction writers show that there are two kinds of writers who contribute to the genre of novels: The first group of writers include those who are global Indians, the diasporic writers, who are Indians by birth but have lived abroad, so they see Indian problems and reality objectively. The second group of writers are those born and brought up in India, exposed to the attitudes, morale and values of the society. Hence their works focus on the various social problems of India like the plight of women, unemployment, poverty, class discrimination, social dogmas, rigid religious norms, inter caste marriages, breakdown of relationships etc.
Chitra Banerjee’s The Mistress of Spices is a diasporic tale built amidst a stream of voices, both male & female, sharing their joys and sorrows as immigrants to the United States. The author interweaves her text with strands of Magical Realism, Postcolonial Criticism and Feminine discourse to produce a patchwork of messages that overlap but never contradict.
Ramamoorthy, P. “My Life is My Own: A Study of Shashi Deshpande’s Women” Feminism and Recent Fiction in English Ed. Sushila Singh. New Delhi: Prestige, 1991.
Mahasweta Devi, always writes for deprived section of people. She is a loving daughter, a clerk, a lecturer, a journalist, an editor, a novelist, a dramatist and above all an ardent social activist. Her stories bring to the surface not only the misery of the completely ignored tribal people, but also articulate the oppression of w...
Gairola, Rahul. “Burning with Shame: Desire and South Asian Patriarchy, from Gayatri Spivak’s ‘Can the Subaltern Speak?’ to Deepa Mehta’s Fire.” Comparative Literature 54:4 (Fall 2002). 307-324. EBSCOhost.
Mahasweta Devi (1926- ) is a prolific Bengali writer and a very active social activist. Her works for the upliftment of the tribal people is extra ordinary. Along with the tribal people, she has also dedicated her struggles for all the subalterns, who are the victims of the system and class. Her works like Bashai Tudu, Chhota Munda and His Arrow, Rudali, Mother of 1084, “Douloti”, “Draupadi”, “Breast-giver”, etc. gives a realistic picture of the society where protagonists are oppressed and suppressed by the different tools of the system. Major portions of her writings are journalistic in nature and are directed against the mainstream. According to her mainstream people are the mute spectators and are very much part of the exploitations inflicted upon the subalterns. Though all her stories are written in Bengali, most of the works of Devi has been now translated into English and other languages for wider readership.
V. S. Naipaul, the mouthpiece of displacement and rootlessness is one of the most significant contemporary English Novelists. Of Indian descent, born in Trinidad, and educated in England, Naipaul has been placed as a rootless nomad in the cultural world, always on a voyage to find his identity. The expatriate sensibility of Naipaul haunts him throughout his fiction and other works, he becomes spokesman of emigrants. He delineates the Indian immigrant’s dilemma, his problems and plights in a fast-changing world. In his works one can find the agony of an exile; the pangs of a man in search of meaning and identity: a dare-devil who has tried to explore myths and see through fantasies. Out of his dilemma is born a rich body of writings which has enriched diasporic literature and the English language.