The Indian Diaspora in America as Reflected in Jhumpa Lahiri’s Fiction

2017 ◽  
Vol 11 (2) ◽  
pp. 204-211
Author(s):  
Leena Chandorkar
Keyword(s):  
Short Story ◽  
Pulitzer Prize ◽  
Indian Diaspora ◽  
Melting Pot ◽  
Indian Origin ◽  
Jhumpa Lahiri ◽  
The Usa ◽  
Immigrant Experience ◽  
American Society

Over the last 20 years, the Indian diaspora in the USA has suddenly come of age, numerically as well as economically. This growing confidence can be seen in the literature written by writers of Indian origin settled in the USA. Shunning sentimentality and overt nostalgia, this latter-day diasporic writing is laced with humour and a critical though affectionate tone directed towards their Indianness. Foremost among these voices is Jhumpa Lahiri. Pulitzer Prize winner Lahiri is the author of two novels and two short story collections. Deeply attached to her Indian heritage, yet wanting desperately to assimilate into the cultural melting pot of American society, Lahiri’s fiction is suffused with a complex biculturalism. With Jhumpa Lahiri’s fiction at the centre, my article will focus on this tug-of-war of alienation and assimilation that is at the heart of every immigrant experience.

scholarly journals Sexual Politics of the Gaze and Objectification of the (Immigrant) Woman in Jhumpa Lahiri’s Interpreter of Maladies

2018 ◽  
Vol 50 (2) ◽  
pp. 89-109 ◽  
Author(s):  
Moussa Pourya Asl ◽  
Nurul Farhana Low Abdullah ◽  
Md. Salleh Yaapar
Keyword(s):  
Short Story ◽  
Asian American ◽  
Immigrant Woman ◽  
The United States ◽  
Pulitzer Prize ◽  
Indian Diaspora ◽  
South Asian American ◽  
Short Story Collection ◽  
The Gaze ◽  
American Society

Gayatri Spivak’s repeated accusations against the hyphenated Americans of colluding in their own exploitation is noteworthy in the context of diasporic writers’ portrayal of immigrant women within the prevailing discourse of anti-Communism in the United States. The woman in South Asian American writings is often portrayed as still stuck in the traditional prescribed gender roles imposed by patriarchal society. This essay explores Jhumpa Lahiri’s literary engagement with the contemporary racialization and gendering of a collective subject described as the Indian diaspora in her Pulitzer Prize winning short story collection, Interpreter of Maladies (1999). Specifically, it focuses on the two stories of “Sexy” and “The Treatment of Bibi Haldar” to analyse the manner dynamics of the gaze operate between the male and female characters. The numerous acts of looking that take place in these stories fall naturally into two major categories: the psychoanalytic look of voyeurism and the historicist gaze of surveillance. Through a rapprochement between the two seemingly different fields of the socius and the psychic, the study concludes that the material and ideological specificities of the stories that formulate a particular group of women as powerless, passive, alien and monstrous are rooted in the contradictory cultural and moral imperatives of the contemporary American society.

scholarly journals Mapping the Psychological Landscape of the Two Generations of Indian Diaspora in US through the Works of Jhumpa Lahiri

2015 ◽  
Vol 2 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jagtar Kaur Chawla ◽  
Nidhi Nema
Keyword(s):  
First Generation ◽  
Second Generation ◽  
Indian Diaspora ◽  
Indian Origin ◽  
Two Generations ◽  
Jhumpa Lahiri ◽  
Displacement Theory ◽  
First And Second Generation ◽  
The Given ◽  
Hyphenated Identity

<p>Every diasporic study or displacement theory inadvertently leads through an analysis and understanding of its governing forces <em>viz</em> socio-economic factors, culture, milieu etc. so as to arrive at any recognizable pattern of the given diasporic consciousness.</p><p>The first generation Indian diasporic sensibilities, governed majorly by the strong undercurrents of culture and traditions, stick to the natal bonds and cultural identity in foreign lands. These culture-preservation efforts are tested and challenged on several fronts externally. Ironically, the biggest threat is posed by internal agents, the second generation, who being culturally hybridized, find themselves torn between two sensibilities. Intrinsically attached to the American mainstream, they take only peripheral interest in reinforcing the ties with their roots.</p><p>The novels of the internationally acclaimed writer of the Indian origin, Jhumpa Lahiri, traverse through the psychological landscape of the first and second generation Indian immigrants in USA mapping significantly the boundaries and distances between the both. This study makes an attempt to look through Lahiri’s works at the paradigm shift between the two generations, the first generation with its ‘living within the walls’ approach and second generation with its unfixed values. The paper also analyzes the set of ‘C’s- conflicts, clashes, complexities and compromises, with a view to present the dialectics or the process of thesis, antithesis and synthesis involved in the Indian diasporic reality.</p><p><strong>Key Words- </strong>Acculturation, Deculturation, Hyphenated Identity, Hybridization, Paradox of Otherness, Breaking the Stereotypes<strong> </strong></p>

scholarly journals Dislocation, Displacement and Immigrant experience in the Short Stories of Shauna Singh Baldwin

2019 ◽  
Vol 7 (1) ◽  
pp. 9
Author(s):  
Dr. Sakshi Semwal
Keyword(s):  
Women Writers ◽  
Short Stories ◽  
Indian Diaspora ◽  
Indian Women ◽  
American Writer ◽  
Indian Origin ◽  
Place Of Origin ◽  
Immigrant Experience ◽  
Immigrant Experiences ◽  
Shauna Singh Baldwin

The Indian Diaspora is a wonderful place to write from, and I am lucky to be a part of it-Kiran Desai Indian Women writers like Kiran Desai, BhartiMukherjeee, Chitra Banerjee, Jumpa Lahiri all are dealing with the issues of Diasporic Consciousness, dislocation, displacement and immigrant experiences in their writings. Shauna Singh Baldwin, a Canadian-American writer of Indian origin is one of the most significant writers of Indian diaspora writing experiences of Sikh community during partition of Indian and its aftermath. In molding the personality of Shauna Singh Baldwin, the concept of nation, home and belongingness to the place of origin finds an important role. She has adopted and assimilated the elements of both home and host cultures and that is clearly revealed through her writings. As she says: “I wrote because I needed to make sense of my world by describing it. Eventually the stories weren't about me and my experience, but about situations, problems, feelings, metaphors and images that just refuse to go away.”

scholarly journals DIASPORA IMAGINATION AND EXPERIENCE SHORT STORIES INTERPRETER OF MALADIES AND UNACCUSTOMED EARTH

2017 ◽  
Vol 4 (37) ◽  
Author(s):  
Surbhi Bhatt ◽  
Mahipal Singh Rao
Keyword(s):  
Short Stories ◽  
Short Story ◽  
American Writer ◽  
Indian American ◽  
Jhumpa Lahiri ◽  
Immigrant Experience

Stories of Jumpha Lahiri are the evidence of immigrant lives, their displeasures, disenchantment, struggles, dreams, integrations, etc. Immigrant experience, as well as identity, really is without question the elements of Interpreter of Maladies which have been explored possibly the most by researchers. In the stories in Unaccustomed Earth have been commended for presenting different aspects of the Bengali diasporic sensibility. The eight stories in the collection show the quest for identity in the diasporic situation. They scrutinize numerous identities as well as a dilemma in the lives of immigrants. This article will study the short story about the immigrants those who have to live their homeland by the Indian-American writer Jhumpa Lahiri, two of those three works, Interpreter of Maladies (1999) and Unaccustomed Earth (2008), are short story collections and are some of the very well known ones.

The Black Lives Matter movement: A call to action: Acts 10:11–16, 25–28, 34–35

2017 ◽  
Vol 114 (3) ◽  
pp. 347-356 ◽  
Author(s):  
J. Alfred Smith
Keyword(s):  
Police Officers ◽  
Black People ◽  
White Supremacy ◽  
Call To Action ◽  
Black Lives Matter ◽  
The Usa ◽  
Black Life ◽  
Black Christians ◽  
American Society ◽  
Justice Movements

The Black Lives Matter movement is one of the most dynamic social justice movements currently emerging in the USA. This movement led by young Blacks unapologetically calls out the shameful, historical legacy of American racism and White supremacy while asserting the humanity and sacredness of Black lives, particularly those of unarmed persons senselessly murdered by police officers. While Black Lives Matter is a new movement, it is also an extension of the 400-year struggle of Black people in America to affirm Black dignity, equality, and human rights, even while the major institutions of American society have propagated doctrines and enforced unjust rules/laws to denigrate Black life. Black Christians have found hope and inspiration from the Gospel to claim their humanity and to struggle to gain justice for Black lives and for the lives of all oppressed people. In addition, the Black Lives Matter movement provides a helpful critique of many Black churches, challenging them to confront their biases, which label young Black males as “thugs” (the new N-word) and which cruelly demonize the LGBTQ community. The story of Peter and Cornelius in Acts 10 provides a scriptural basis for Christian introspection and responses to God’s vision for beloved community, and for the call to action from the Black Lives Matter movement.

Issues of Identity in the Indian Diaspora: A Transnational Perspective

2006 ◽  
Vol 5 (1-2) ◽  
pp. 81-98 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ajaya Kumar Sahoo
Keyword(s):  
Indian Diaspora ◽  
Global Organizations ◽  
The People ◽  
Rural And Urban ◽  
Indian Origin ◽  
Global Organization ◽  
The World ◽  
Recent Advancement ◽  
Professional Fields ◽  
Diasporic Communities

AbstractIndia is unique for the magnitude of her diversities in terms of languages and regions, religions and sects, castes and sub-castes, rural and urban, food and style of dress, which are also reflected by her diasporic communities. There are diasporic communities formed on the basis of linguistic or regional identities such as Punjabis, Gujaratis, Sindhis, Tamils, Malayalees and Telugus. Global organizations such as Global Organization of People of Indian Origin (GOPIO), World Telugu Federation (WTF), and World Punjabi Organization (WPO), have recently emerged to preserve and promote the identities and cultures of Indians, uniting transnationally India and the global Indian diaspora. The past decade has witnessed a phenomenal dynamism among the diasporic communities, made possible by the recent advancement in technologies of travel, transport, and communications. Not only did these developments bring the diasporic communities and their motherland closer but they also facilitated in bringing together the members of their community dispersed around the world. The present article examines this emerging trend with the illustration of one of the important regional Indian diasporic communities, the Gujarati Diaspora. Gujaratis, the people from the central western parts of India, are one of the early Indian communities who have ventured out to different parts of the world for multiple reasons. Today, as one of the prominent Indian diasporic communities in the world, Gujaratis are successful not only in business, which is their first love, but also in professional fields such as technology, science, medicine, and business management.

scholarly journals «Red Threat» in the estimates of the USA press in 1939

2019 ◽  
Vol 8 (3) ◽  
pp. 223-226
Author(s):  
Sergey Olegovich Buranok
Keyword(s):  
Foreign Policy ◽  
Public Opinion ◽  
Information Campaign ◽  
The World ◽  
Large Project ◽  
Soviet Foreign Policy ◽  
The Usa ◽  
Image Creation ◽  
Level Of Knowledge ◽  
American Society

The following paper deals with the research of the place and value of Russias foreign policy and its reflection in the USA public opinion. The study of information campaign around USSRs foreign policy has its specifics and value: first, it gives a chance to establish new, unknown facts; secondly, to determine the level of knowledge of another (in this case, American) society about the Soviet foreign policy; thirdly, to understand what place information about Soviet foreign policy took in the USA in the system of the USSR image creation, the image of the Soviet revolution. This paper uses materials of the USA press about USSRs foreign policy in 1939. Besides, the author analyzes the image of the Soviet foreign policy in the American society. The information campaign around USSRs foreign policy could report to the world about the Soviet foreign policy achievements as well as promote preparation (in the information plan) to the following large project - the image of the Soviet ally. Articles, reports, notes on USSRs foreign policy of 1939 helped to change the attitude towards Russia / the USSR in the USA and helped to correct the image of the USSR in the world.

scholarly journals Contestation of Discourse on Alcoholism among Native Americans in Joy Harjo’s The Reckoning (2002)

2020 ◽  
Vol 1 (2) ◽  
pp. 82
Author(s):  
Shofi Mahmudah Budi Utami
Keyword(s):  
Native American ◽  
Discourse Analysis ◽  
Native Americans ◽  
Short Story ◽  
Discursive Practices ◽  
Way Of Life ◽  
Joy Harjo ◽  
Discourse Production ◽  
The Subject ◽  
American Society

This study aims at revealing how the discursive practices and the discourse on alcoholism in the Native Americans is produced and contested in a short story entitled The Reckoning by Joy Harjo. The problem in this study is approached by Foucauldian concept of discourse production procedure. The method applied here is the Foucauldian discourse analysis by examining the problem through the process of formation including external and internal exclusion. Central to the analysis is that alcoholism is produced as taboo through the mother character which limits the general understanding about alcoholism; hence this discourse is possible to produce by the subject whose credentials can validate the truth. This discourse is also affirmed by the contextual prohibition which authoritatively can state the truth about alcoholism. This is further contested in the current society of how being an alcoholic would be considered as a non-native American way of life. The result indicates that alcoholism among Native American society becomes the discourse within which constraints produce considerable barriers to expose or address to this topic

scholarly journals ’Det er easy at tale engelsk også’. Amerikadansk i 1960’erne og 1970’erne

2015 ◽  
Vol 47 (47) ◽  
pp. 39 ◽  
Author(s):  
Karoline Kühl
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
World War I ◽  
20Th Century ◽  
The United States ◽  
Rapid Decline ◽  
Language Loss ◽  
World War ◽  
Melting Pot ◽  
Post War ◽  
American Society

The conditions for the Danish language among Danish emigrants and their descendants in the United States in the first half of the 20th century were tough: The group of Danish speakers was relatively small, the Danes did not settle together as other immigrant groups did, and demographic circumstances led many young, unmarried Danish men to marry non-Danish speaking partners. These were all factors that prevented the formation of tight-knit Danish-speaking communities. Furthermore, US nationalistic propaganda in the wake of World War I and the melting-pot effect of post-war American society in the 1950s contributed to a rapid decline in the use of Danish among the emigrants. Analyses of recordings of 58 Danish-American speakers from the 1970s show, however, that the language did not decline in an unsystematic process of language loss, only to be replaced quickly and effectively by English. On the contrary, the recordings show contactinduced linguistic innovations in the Danish of the interviewees, which involve the creation of specific lexical and syntactical American Danish features that systematically differ from Continental Danish. The article describes and discusses these features, and gives a thorough account of the socioeconomic and linguistic conditions for this speaker group.

scholarly journals The American press about the soviet industrialization in 1920-1930s

2016 ◽  
Vol 5 (2) ◽  
pp. 115-120
Author(s):  
Olga Olegovna Rezanenko
Keyword(s):  
Quality Of Life ◽  
Quality Management ◽  
Foreign Affairs ◽  
Soviet Regime ◽  
Press Releases ◽  
Information Selection ◽  
American Press ◽  
The Usa ◽  
American Society

Press releases nature about the soviet industrialization, business and political circles and intellectuals reaction to the changes in the USSR during the 1920-1930s and deciding factors of the five-year plans perception by the Americans are determined and analyzed in this work. American periodicals, diplomatic correspondence of the Peoples Commissariat for Foreign Affairs (NKID) as well as materials of soviet propaganda are of particular importance for this research. On the basis of these sources the following conclusions were drawn: the American public had different views on the Soviet industrialization. Positive estimations were based on the real progress (new plants construction, improvement of the quality of life). Negative - on disparities between Soviet and American standards of labor productivity and quality, management, discipline, etc. Authors personal sympathies to the Soviet regime, artificial information selection by soviet censorship, political, social and economic environment in the USA influenced on the American public opinion. Soviet propaganda methods in order to form proper views in American society in that period were not substantial.

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