Diaspora A critical Study of Existential Nowhereness Aprospos of jhumpa Lahiri s Novel The Namesake

Abstract

newline The second half of the last century has seen movement of populations from one country to another. This movement has occurred due to a majority of factors which range from socio-economic to political affairs and unemployment to employment factors. In the present scenario of globalization and mobilization and with the advent of high-techno system of ICT, migration to the foreign countries has boomed up. Migration has given rise to the issues of being and belonging surfacing various problems of identity, nationality and origin. The study is intended to understand the various issues of diaspora such as alienation, marginalization, cultural individuality, social disparity, racism, ethnicity, generation sensitivity, trauma of existential nowhereness etc. with reference to Jhumpa Lahiri s novel The Namesake. Her works discuss several global issues of settlement which are of prime concern these days. I believe such factors influence family relationships to a great extent since the members of a family do not always have the same set of histories. Moreover family relations, both immediate and extended, are always in a perplexed state because of the gulf between the home country and the host country. The problematic issues of self and identity often create problems in the normal life of diasporic people. In the past five decades, numerous literary works by Indian-born writers have placed issues connected to immigration at the center of their narratives. Internationally acclaimed authors like Anita Desai, Bharati Mukherjee, Arundhati Roy, Kiran Desai Amitav Ghosh or Salman Rushdie, Jhumpa Lahiri have drawn attention to the experience of migration and the traumas associated with leaving one s homeland and coming into contact with another culture. newline The present thesis studies the novel namely, The Namesake written by the most famous Indo-American diasporic writer Jhumpa Lahiri to focus on the theme of diasporic nowhereness of the Indian diaspora and incorporates theories and various concepts on diaspora, hybridity, cultural identity and self identity for critical analysis of the diaspora. The objective of the thesis is to investigate the effectiveness with which Lahiri portrays the effects of migration on first as well as second generation Indian diaspora living in America. And I was attracted towards this kind of theme because most of my friends and family members, who got settled in various foreign countries, but always urge to come back to their home country which they consider as the most peaceful and secure place. The thesis concludes that Lahiri has realistically portrayed how her Indian diasporic subjects are interwined with the traditional culture and American culture and facing the trauma of the nowhereness of the self. The thesis is divided into seven chapters with the appropriate excerpts of the influential writers and recordings taken from various interviews. Lahiri is the true representative of the unheard sufferings and inner emotional world of the diaspora society. newline