It shall be my endeavour in this research to explore the theme of Indian Postcolonial diaspora, the cultural dislocation and consequent alienation. The paper attempts to re-trace the multiple terrains of cultural and psychological struggle within for the expatriate, the nostalgia accompanied with the expatriate experience and the continuous conflict between past and the present. I also intend to analyse the series of crises the migrants experience in order to seek acceptance in new cultural denominations. The nature of this postcolonial study intends to explore the conflicts between Indian traditions and Western habits. To support my arguments, I have chosen the celebrated novel, The Namesake written by the diaspora writer Jhumpa Lahiri.
Defining Diaspora. The word diaspora is important and relevant to all who have migrated to various countries across the world in search of better fortunes. The word diaspora literally means “to disperse”. It is Greek in origin. In the book, “Key Concepts of Postcolonial Studies”, Bill Ashcroft, Gareth Griffiths, and Helen Tiffin define Diaspora as the “voluntary or forcible movement of peoples from their home lands into new regions…”(Ashcroft 68). In the words of Robert Cohen, diasporas constitutecommunity who live together in foreign territories to “acknowledge the old country – a nation often burieddeep in language, religion, custom or folklore- always has some claim in the loyalty and emotions”. (Cohenix). In Jhumpa Lahiri’s novel The Namesake, we find the first generation migrant protagonist Ashima Ganguly looks back towards past, tries to find solace in recreating her homeland which was Calcutta in the new foreign territory of Cambridge and New York. On this context, I find it relevant to d...
... middle of paper ...
... only to a single culture or ethnicity or nationality. In other words the second generation immigrants like Gogol, Sonia, Moushumi are the product of hybrid cultures. In the age of globalisation, with locational changes the expatriate incorporate new ethnicities which give birth to an entirely new cultural identity. The narrative philosophically explores the spatial dislocation, cultural alienation and emotional isolation of the expatriates. The journey for the quest for identity is always difficult, more so, in the expatriate experience. The land of opportunities simultaneously becomes the land of crises and confusion. Psychologically, the expatriate slowly imbibes hybrid cultural denominations and continue to evolve into new dimensions while consciously accepting the historical past as the point of origin for its spiritual and emotional identification of the soul.
Sometimes religion can be a necessity for comfort. Over time, we may already possess our very own identities and then develop different ones after a tragedy. In order to easily move on from a plight, some sort of comfort or security is needed, whether its time, family, friends, a sport, or religion. In the novel, The Namesake by Jhumpa Lahiri, one can clearly see the viewpoint of how Gogol’s life over time has evolved from American to Bengali. With the comfort of his Bengali life he’s able to push through the tragedy of his father’s death. However, apart from when Gogol needs his family and culture for comfort, he is simply a true American.
In “My Two Lives”, Jhumpa Lahiri tells of her complicated upbringing in Rhode Island with her Calcutta born-and-raised parents, in which she continually sought a balance between both her Indian and American sides. She explains how she differs from her parents due to immigration, the existent connections to India, and her development as a writer of Indian-American stories. “The Freedom of the Inbetween” written by Sally Dalton-Brown explores the state of limbo, or “being between cultures”, which can make second-generation immigrants feel liberated, or vice versa, trapped within the two (333). This work also discusses how Lahiri writes about her life experiences through her own characters in her books. Charles Hirschman’s “Immigration and the American Century” states that immigrants are shaped by the combination of an adaptation to American...
It’s pretty clear that film and literature are very different mediums and when you try to make one into the other, such as an adaptation, you’re going to have some things that are lost in translation and seen in a different light. When an original work is made into a movie, I think they’re kind of at a disadvantage because they only have a few hours to get the whole story across while also keeping the viewer intrigued by what is taking place on the screen right in front of their eyes. Movies are able to contain special effects, visuals, and music though which can impact a viewer and make a scene stay in their mind longer which is a plus side to being able to view something. Literature on the other hand, has a greater advantage. They can keep the reader entertained for a considerably long time and you’re able to get more information about people and events such as what a character is thinking or what is happening behind the scenes during a specific event. I understand that people are going to have different opinions when it comes to whether a book or film adaptation of a work is the best and it is not always going to be the same for each and every piece of work. One thing I think though, is that The Namesake in both the film and the movie, they’re both accurate and concise in the way that they relate to one another.
The concept diaspora was derived from Greek and means the migration, movement, or scattering of people from their homeland that share the some links or common cultural elements to a home whether real or imagined. The reason why the term ‘diaspora’ is important to understand and is useful because it refers not only because its linked and refers to globalization, linking and connecting place, social consequences of migration, but also, to a form of consciousness and an awareness of home at a more personal level. The feelings, relationships and identities that is often very deeply meaningful to migrants. (Raghuram and Erel, 2014, p. 153 -
Knott , Kim, and Seán McLoughlin, eds. Diasporas Concepts, Intersections, Identities. New York : Zed Books, 2010. Print.
As the Diaspora experience is presented as a distinct identity trait of the Jewish people, there is ...
The Face: Strangers on a pier by Tash Aw, is an implausible novel where Aw’s family background about the experience his grandfather had migrating somewhere else was. The novel illustrates his grandfather's journey, and the heritage from which he derives from, but it also inputs a new key term of “forgetters”. It lack the sentimental element that every migrant novel carries. The pity, and pathos most people relate to when recounting the hardships an immigrant goes through to gain acceptance and stability in a new country. In addition, it adds what others don’t which is assimilating the novel to the grandchildren, and new generation of people from the migrating families. It puts in perspective how the generations to come lose the dialect, forget
Consequently, the families, and the parents especially, feel isolated from society in their new homes. Especially in Ghada’s case, the reader observes how the children, who naturally become more integrated thanks to their education in the school system, begin to feel less close to their parents. Indeed, this characteristic of both Khadra and Ghada’s families demonstrates the unique situation in which many Muslim migrants find themselves. For some, their move is seen as temporary at the beginning, which provides no incentive to integrate. However, this ultimately makes their lives in the new country more difficult and lonely.
Do our names give us meaning or do we give meaning to our names? From the moment we are born our parents are the ones to give us our name without knowing our personality, only hoping it fits who we grow up to be. In Jhumpa Lahiri’s novel The Namesake, the protagonist is struggling with a conflict within himself whether to accept his Bengali culture or to embrace a new way. The American way. Being the son of two Bengali parents Ashoke and Ashima Ganguli were in a rush to name their newborn child after never having received the name sent by the protagonist’s grandmother. In this moment, at the rush of the hour the child was named Gogol, taking the name of an author of the book that saved the life of his father after having been in a horrible
The term “Diaspora” is used to refer either to singular person or ethnic population forced or induced to leave their traditional ethnic homelands being dispersed throughout other parts of the world, and the ensuing developments in their dispersal and culture. In the beginning, the term was used by the Ancient Greeks to refer to citizens of a grand city who migrated to a conquered land with the purpose of colonization to assimilate the territory into the empire. A large number of Indians migrated to Far East and South East Asia to spread Buddhism during the ancient times. The migration was a history of misery, deprivation and sorrow during the colonial period. In this century the migration was mainly due to the industrialized and
The poem “Minority” written by Imtiaz Dharker uses contrasts in imagery and a change in point of view in order to convey the “foreigner” (1) and the message to “you” (44). The opening line of the poem introduces its theme of separation and otherness. The poem begins “I was born a foreigner” (1) using the 1st person point of view to present a personal feeling that is internal. The first line of the poem leads to the fact that the speaker was born in a country different from their origin. After the first line, the speaker in the poem seems to belong nowhere – “even in the place/planted with my relatives” (4-5) leading to believe that the speaker is “a foreigner everywhere” (3).
Immigrant enclaves, a term coined by ecologists at the Chicago School at the beginning of the twenty-first century, is understood as a place where a large number of immigrants, group together upon their first arrival within a new environment, such as a global city. These enclaves provide affordable accommodation, and a form of community to newcomers who often have very little in the way of financial support, but are often run down. Today, immigrants are not limited to the poor and desperate, but include a more diverse spectrum of people, including those with professional status. Whether a place is regarded as an ethnic enclave or an ethnic community, the neighbourhood continues to be a critical part of minority groups’ experiences of the diaspora. These spaces are the first form of community that is experienced by immigrants that have some connection to the environments and traditions that they have left behind.
Postcolonial authors use their literature and poetry to solidify, through criticism and celebration, an emerging national identity, which they have taken on the responsibility of representing. Surely, the reevaluation of national identity is an eventual and essential result of a country gaining independence from a colonial power, or a country emerging from a fledgling settler colony. However, to claim to be representative of that entire identity is a huge undertaking for an author trying to convey a postcolonial message. Each nation, province, island, state, neighborhood and individual is its own unique amalgamation of history, culture, language and tradition. Only by understanding and embracing the idea of cultural hybridity when attempting to explore the concept of national identity can any one individual, or nation, truly hope to understand or communicate the lasting effects of the colonial process.
In “One Out of Many,” Naipaul uses the literary device known as “stream of consciousness” in order to efficiently tell the story of immigrants who emigrate to the United States of America. Naipaul tells the story through an Indian man by the name of Santosh, who is emigrating from Bombay to America with his “master”. Santosh’s actions and thoughts of American life and culture is demonstrated unequivocally throughout the work. Naipaul begins his exposition of cultural alienation through the analysis of class. The author allows the reader to observe Santosh’s discomfort while he is on the plane traveling to America. (Norton 1662) Through this observation, the reader notes Santosh’s loss of his traditional Indian caste identity and his subseque...
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.