Double Consciousness in Hanif Kureishi’s The Black Album

This article throws light on the issue of identity and Double Consciousness which creates traumatic effects on the psyche, identity and culture of Shahid, the representative of South Asian Immigrants depicted in Hanif Kureishi’s The Black Album in Britain. In The Black Album, Shahid is depicted as a South Asian British Muslim who looks at himself from the eyes of the White British and he finds two-ness in himself, which is similar to W. E. B. Du Bois’ theory of Double Consciousness that “is the sense of always looking at one’s self from the eyes of others” (2). So, the article reveals the double consciousness of Shahid, the protagonist who carries hybrid identity for having British White mother and Pakistani Muslim father. Because of being a South Asian Muslim immigrant living under the hegemony of White Supremacy in Britain, he experiences Double Consciousness, which causes his inferiority complex, lack of self-esteem, rootlessness, in-betweenness and fragmentation of identity. Thus, the article deals with the Double Consciousness within the binary opposition between the East and West, Islamic Fundamentalist and Western Liberalism, and Pakistani Identity and British Identity. According to the theorists Homi Bhabha, Edward Said and Frantz Fanon, the colonized people who become immigrants in the postcolonial era suffer from identity crisis and double consciousness as they face segregation, racism, discrimination and various other forms of Othering.

A DYSTOPIAN VISION IN THE PALACE OF ILLUSION- A CRITICAL STUDY

Chitra Banerjee Divakaruni is an author, poet, activist and professor. She is considered an Indian American writer. Divakaruni often focuses on the experience of South Asian immigrants and her works are largely set in India and the United States. The present paper deals with the reading of Chitra Banerjee Divakaruni's remarkable historical ction- “The Palace of Illusion”. A number of researches have been done on this work with a Feminist and Psychological approach. This research paper will attempt the analyzing the work with an alternative perspective which is a Dystopian vision. With answering these questions- How Divakaruni's work- 'The palace of Illusion' is re-imaging the protagonist's perspective in a dystopian society instead of retelling the Indian epic? How dystopian vision is an appropriate choice for analyzing the present work? The paper will also argue that Dystopia is not just bounded to science ction although it can also be related to other genres of ction.

Attachment Style, Mother Tongue Proficiency and Sociocultural Identity Amongst Second and Third Generation South Asian Immigrants in Hong Kong

This study examined the relationship between attachment style, mother tongue (L1) and dominant language (DL) proficiency, sociocultural identification with the culture of origin, and life satisfaction amongst second-generation and third-generation South Asian immigrants in Hong Kong. Participants included 69 women and 28 men who were permanent residents of South Asian ethnicity, and who had grown up in Hong Kong. The results identified significant associations between attachment insecurity and L1 and DL proficiency, as well as commitment to the origin culture. There was a positive association between life satisfaction and commitment levels to origin culture, indicating that high commitment levels to origin culture tend to coexist with high life satisfaction. This study adds to the existing literature with a focus on language skills, attachment and acculturation in immigrant populations.

Immigration Status, Ethnicity, and Long-term Outcomes Following Ischemic Stroke

ObjectiveTo assess the association between immigration status and ethnicity and the outcomes of mortality and vascular event recurrence following ischemic stroke in Ontario, Canada.MethodsWe conducted a retrospective cohort study using linked administrative and clinical registry–based data from 2002 to 2018 and compared hazards of all-cause mortality and vascular event recurrence in immigrants and long-term residents using inverse probability of treatment weighting accounting for age, sex, income, and comorbidities. We stratified analyses by age (≤75 and >75 years) and used interaction terms to evaluate whether the association between immigration status and outcomes varied with age or ethnicity.ResultsWe followed 31,918 adult patients, of whom 2,740 (8.6%) were immigrants, for a median follow-up of 5 years. Immigrants had lower mortality than long-term residents (46.1% vs 64.5%), which was attenuated after adjustment (hazard ratio [HR] 0.94; 95% confidence interval [CI] 0.88–1.00), but persisted in those younger than 75 years (HR 0.82; 0.74–0.91). Compared to their respective ethnic long-term resident counterparts, the adjusted hazard of death was higher in South Asian immigrants, similar in Chinese immigrants, and lower in other immigrants (p value for interaction = 0.003). The adjusted hazard of vascular event recurrence (HR 1.01; 0.92–1.11) was similar in immigrants and long-term residents, and this observation persisted across all age and ethnic groups.ConclusionsLong-term mortality following ischemic stroke is lower in immigrants than in long-term residents, but is similar after adjustment for baseline characteristics, and it is modified by age at the time of stroke and by ethnicity.

TRACING CULTURAL MORPHING AND DIASPORIC IDENTICAL APPREHENSIONS: POST-PARTITIONED (1947) CONTEXTUAL IDEOLOGIES IN LIQUID MODERN ERA

This research explores the diasporic experiences of South Asian immigrants and cultural ambivalence in Kiran Desai’s The Inheritance of Loss (2006). It highlights the conditions when East Pakistan had to adjust to an altogether new environment separated from their original culture after the Partition of this subcontinent in the year 1947. It reveals that the same historical, ideological, and thematic properties have been coming through generations and diasporic writers select these themes as their major subject of discussion. This research explores the varied nuances of family relationships in the writings of recent diaspora writers like Desai. The surge of globalization has washed away solitary identities. Theories presented by Homi K. Bhabha and Stuart Hall help this study in finding the answers of the proposed research question. This research provides a chance to understand the impact of Post-Partitioned (1947) ideologies behind the theme selection in the writings of diasporic Anglophone writers.