create a new form of fiction within the English language by incorporating new images and above all new rhythms. One of the major features of postcolonial texts is the concern with place and displacement, shifting of location and resulting in " the crisis of identity into being" (Bill Ashcroft and et al., 47).Often, the protagonist of a post- colonial work will find himself/herself in a struggle to establish an identity; feeling conflicted between two cultures - one his own native culture and the other an alien culture. Therefore, a central theme in post-colonial writing is the transformation of the native into something other than himself - a Westernized native, or at least one who is in a crisis regarding his/her own cultural identity. Here, …show more content…
Uprooting from one's own culture and land and the agonies of re-routing in an alien land are depicted in many postcolonial works. This paper is an attempt to discuss the postcolonial dilemmas faced by the characters in Kiran Desai's novel The Inheritance of Loss. They often face the problem of identity and alienation and become frustrated at the end. Even when they come back to their own country, like the Judge in the novel, they develop a sense of distrust and anger. They are in a state of confusion from which they will find it difficult to come out. The paper will mainly focus on the postcolonial experiences of Jemubhai Patel, the Judge and Biju, the son of the Judge's cook who eventually supposed to have found out happiness in the reunion with his father, though he has lost all that he earned from his brief time in …show more content…
There are stories within the stories depicted in numerous vignettes. Set in 1980s, the novel gives a graphic account of a cross section of Indian society in characters like Jemubhai Patel, a former judge, his teenaged granddaughter Sai and their cook, Panna Lal who live in a house in the north East Indian town Kalimpong, Biju, the cook's son, Gyan, Saeed, Haresh- Harvy and the two sisters, Lolita and Nonita. All these figures are the inheritors of loss, in terms of dislocation of place, wealth and progress. They are all transformed from their 'native' identity into something quite different, a " Westernized native". Rather, they are negotiating with a state of non-identity. Caught between two worlds, the characters negotiate a new social space; caught between two cultures and often languages the writer also negotiates a new literary space. They are all haunted by questions often asked by an immigrant: Who am I? Where do I
Nilanjana Sudeshna Lahiri, an Indian by descent, was born in London in August 1967, to a Bengali immigrant Indian parents. “Jhumpa” is the nickname easier for the teachers remember his name. The Lahiri family moved from England to Rhode Island when Jhumpa was two years old. Her father was a librarian at Rhode Island University and her mother was a school teacher. At age of seven, Lahiri started to embrace writing about what she saw and felt. While growing up, Lahiri lived two lives: An Indian at home and An American outside of the home. Despite of living most of their life in the western world, Lahiri’s parents called “Calcutta” their home unlike Lahiri who thought Rhode Island as her hometown. Lahiri always felt her family had a different li...
Her realization that she is not alone in her oppression brings her a sense of freedom. It validates her emerging thoughts of wanting to rise up and shine a light on injustice. Her worries about not wanting to grow up because of the harsh life that awaits her is a common thought among others besides the people in her community. As she makes friends with other Indians in other communities she realizes the common bonds they share, even down to the most basic such as what they eat, which comforts her and allows her to empathize with them.
Forming a new identity in a foreign country is not an easy task. Immigrants usually face challenges to identify themselves. Identity formation is the development of one’s distinctive personality due to particular reasons such as new environment, new culture and conflicts. During the process, some characters from Jhumpa Lahiri’s The Namesake either create or deny the bond with their own culture; some undergo conflicts among generations. Those processes reflect significantly in Ashima and Gogol throughout the book. The degree of assimilations determines to what extent the characters have formed the new identity in the new culture.
The narrator, ever since he was young, never really stuck by the traditional family standard of living: his father decides to start a new family with someone else that is not his mother and given the freedom to choose to live with his Aunt as his parental guardian. The narrator defines his relationship that he has with his Aunt that allowed him to truthfully say that he was “proud to be her nephew and her son” (52), which displays the narrator’s perception that although he is not her direct son, he is a huge impact and part of her life. He is able to define himself as her sole son. As the story goes on, the narrator realizes the conflict that he is soon stuck between. His life is molded into a mixed culture where he would: still have strong holds to his Native American heritage along with accustoming to the white’s expectations of attending college while maintain a strong relationship with his Aunt. Through his aunt having “so much love and knowledge to share, which she passed onto [the narrator] naturally” (53), the narrator is able to witness first-hand about the Native American tradition and beliefs. As compared to Gary Soto’s work, both narrators were able to view their culture under a new light with a positive perspective. By the end of the stories, both narrators were able to associate themselves with their cultures without feeling the need to change it or contemplate over, something that is irreplaceably taught to them through the power of family. Through this process, they have materialized that they did not have to alter the structure and way of life of their family in order to find clarity with who they are. However, the difference between the two stories is that each narrator learns these lessons through different means. The narrator from “Looking for Work” learns through
Lahiri, a second-generation immigrant, endures the difficulty of living in the middle of her hyphenated label “Indian-American”, whereas she will never fully feel Indian nor fully American, her identity is the combination of her attributes, everything in between.
It is during her stay at the White Family Home that she tries to grapple with cultural identity. In this regard, the novel articulates that Lucy was optimistic of living behind her cultural identity from her West Indies background; however, with time, Lucy generates nostalgic memories of her homeland. This portrays the hegemonic ideology of cultural identity. For example, she begins to remember the foods that she consumed while back home. Additionally, the cultural representation of cheating in marriage is replicated in Lucy’s new-found home.
During school time, Jayanthi lives like an American, modernized woman that has no cultural boundaries. However, as soon as she comes home she lives the traditional Indian life. Even before Jayanthi is able to split we see her living two different lives. Jayanthi blames her culture for her confusion rather than analyzing the fact that living like an American and Indian at the same time can make a women build a strong identity because it means she is rather more experienced than a women without traditional background. Bell claim that “[Jayanthi felt more confused than ever about whether she was good or bad, Indian or American” (Bell, “Hard to Get,” 32). In reality I argue Jayanthi is both American and Indian, good and bad at the same time. Jayanthi tries to hide who she is and where she comes from to please others around her because she is psychologically
The author of the story was born in 1967 in London, and soon after she moved to Rhode Island in the United States. Although Lahiri was born in England and raised in the United States and her parent’s still carried an Indian cultural background and held their believes, as her father and mother were a librarian and teacher. Author’s Indian heritage is a strong basis of her stories, stories where she questions the identity and the plot of the different cultural displaced. Lahiri always interactive with her parents in Bengali every time which shows she respected her parents and culture. As the author was growing up she never felt that she was a full American, as her parents deep ties with India as they often visited the country.
This research study focuses at negotiating the shifting identities of immigrants and their traumas in postcolonial literature with reference to Lahiri’s fiction. The suffering of every immigrant in achieving a shelter and identity in a foreign land often leads to loss of identity. The qualms, agitation and nervousness of immigrants often increase the issues of identity, and immigrants often feel alienated in the midst of exotic land, they even start to think about achieving new identities. Stuart Hall (1987) a famous cultural theorist discusses the issues of cultural identity and migration as he says “Migration is a one way trip. There is no “home” to go back to”. Change in the place and ambience totally change the circumstances in the lives of immigrants in Lahiri’s fiction, they often try to cling to their own cultural identity and costumes. But the cultural effect is often so strong that it deeply affects the identity of immigrants and they ultimately try to change their identities. Immigrants make an absurd attempt to get mingled in the culture of foreign country. Hall discusses “Cultural identities are those which are constantly producing and reproducing themselves anew, through transformation and difference” (235).
In the Third and Final Continent, Jhumpa Lahiri uses her own experiences of being from an immigrant family to illustrate to her readers how heritage, cultural influences and adaptation play a major role in finding your true identity. The Third and Final Continent is the ninth narration in a collection of stories called the Interpreter of Maladies. In this story, it discusses themes such as marriage, family, society, language and identity. In this story, we focus on an East Asian man of Bengali descent who wants to have a better future for himself so he leaves India and travels to London, England to pursue a higher education. His pursuit for higher education takes place on three different continents. In India, he feels safe in his home country and welcomed, but when he travels abroad he starts to have fear and anxiety. Through his narrations, we learn how he adapts to the European and American and through these experiences he learns to assimilate and to adapt to the new culture he travels to.
In Jhumpa Lahiri’s novel, The Namesake, the protagonist, Gogol, struggles with his cultural identity. He is an American-born Bengali struggling to define himself. He wants to fit into the typical American-lifestyle, a lifestyle his parents do not understand. This causes him tension through his adolescence and adult life, he has trouble finding a balance between America and Bengali culture. This is exemplified with his romantic relationships. These relationships directly reflect where he is in his life, what he is going through and his relationship with his parents. Each woman indicates a particular moment in time where he is trying to figure out his cultural identity. Ruth represents an initial break away from Bengali culture; Maxine represents
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.
Post-colonialism known as an “era” or the “post-colonial theory” that exists since around the middle of the 20th century. Post-colonialism also deals with conflicts of identity and cultural belonging. In Post-colonial writings the themes which are focused on are nationalism, self-identification to anti-imperialistic critique and postcolonial protest. Often protest writing has a political agenda of social change and expresses anger and disillusion at the postcolonial nation state. Nayar points out, “resistance literature in both the colony and the postcolonial nation include testimonial writings, prison narratives, revolutionary tracts and ‘insurgency’ writing. The rise and changes through technology, the manipulated fear of wars, multi-national capitalism, corporate economy, environmental concerns, various rights, terrorism, and all that; through political After colonialism and post colonization there is a re-colonization taking place with India. It is rather continuation of colonialism with certain added features to suit the perpetrators of colonialism, be it art, culture, commerce, or politics. or, we are heading back to colonialism by not resisting the politics of tyranny of a handful of zealots who have virtually consolidated their brutal power and are now out to obliterate the “marginalized”. , postcolonial literature is writing which has been “affected by the imperial process from the moment of colonization to the present day” (Ashcroft et al, 2). In India’s case, this includes novels, poetry, and drama which were written both during and after the British Raj or “Reign,” which came to a formal conclusion with Indian Independence in August 1947. Post colonial literature focuses on Reclaiming spaces and places Asserting cultur...
Postcolonialism is a literary period that existed since around the middle of the 20th century. This period or in other words this literary era followed the colonialism era. It is regarded after the colonized countries or nations got their independence and got a way out under colonials. This era like the rest of other literary eras has various particular characteristics and aspects. Most commonly the aspects of Post-colonial literature fall into; history, literature, politics, culture and identity of both the countries that were colonized and colonial countries. However, Postcolonialism can take the colonial time into consideration as well as the time after colonialism. Postcolonialism also deals with conflicts of identity and cultural belonging. Colonial powers came to foreign countries and destroyed the most important parts of their native traditions and culture. People from colonized countries were seen as lesser and powerless people because their land, home and everything were controlled by colonized countries. This often led to conflicts when countries became independent and suddenly faced the challenge of developing a new national identity and self-confidence. People from former colonized countries tried to discuss the problems and difficulties they had during the period of colonization and effects of the period by producing a literature which is called postcolonial literature. Postcolonial literature is writing which has been “affected by the imperial process from the moment of colonization to the present day” (Ashcroft et al, 2). Postcolonial literature seeks the richness and legitimacy of original cultures in an effort to restore pride in practices and traditions that were systematically degraded under colonialism. Ther...
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.