Spacing Diaspora “identities”: A Comparative Study on The Shadow Lines, Jasmine and Interpreter of Maladies

Abstract

Diaspora identity surfaces a number of emotional dispositions: rootlessness, isolation, nostalgia, inner conflict, generation gap, and last but not the least, an expedition for identity. The diaspora writers attempt to reconstruct a link between the motherland and the migrated country by projecting the continuous cultural clash between these territories. Searching for and defining a new identity is the central question for immigrants living in foreign land that leads them to create a balance between their past and present. This paper will offer a comparative study on the portrayal of Indian diaspora in Amitav Ghosh’s The Shadow Lines, Bharati Mukherjee’s Jasmine, and Jhumpa Lahiri’s Interpreter of Maladies. These novels share some common contexts, like first generation immigrant’s craving for establishing the values of their root to the next generations, second generation’s vision of the “imaginary homeland” and their current home and their constant effort to make a balance between them, and the failure of creating a substantial balance leading to trauma and disruption of the personal and communal relationships. The main focus of this study is to trace the identity crisis of the characters in terms of space, geography, history, trauma etc. This paper will offer a literature review of those novels by relating them to the concept of third space and hybridity by Homi Bhaba from his The Location of Culture and the idea of cultural relocation and representation by Stuart Hall from the essays “Cultural Identity and Diaspora” and “Question of Identity”.