Streak of Alienated Identification in Jhumpa Lahiri’s Works

Abstract

The perception of Indian culture outside South Asia has changed radically in the last decade. The success of Indian authors in English fiction writing has reached unprecedented heights. In the last two decades, an increasing number of writers of Indian origin who have flung far and wide across this planet have exploited cultural-interpollination as a significant facet of life. Dislocation and alienation form the dominant themes of these writings. Corollary the style and the content of their writings have been greatly influenced by the extent to which they have been able to identify and adapt to their new surroundings. These writers though moved to the new country for past so many years, still feel alienated in their new country and who tend to write about people, food, and events that are typical of their motherland. They also seem to be anxious to infuse their native color in their writings. For instance, Meena Alexander in The Poetics of Dislocation reminisces about the place of her birth across the Pemba river on the west coast of Kerala, even as she lives in New York close to the Hudson river. She keeps dreaming about climbing a tree in her native town and viewing the scene from above. Thus the feeling of loss, prevalence of longing, and loneliness have been reflected in the works of quite a few emigrant writers. In fact the manifestation of such a disjuncted, defunct and uprooted mood has been so frequent and dominant. Among such Anglo Indian writers living in the western countries, Jhumpa Lahiri is one who has gained immense popularity for her works. For the present study her debut story collection Interpreter of Maladies and her debut novel Namesake have been taken into consideration. The present paper focuses on how all her characters appear tentative and irresolute in their approach to resolve matters like society, culture, ambience and one’s consequent adaptability or lack of it. The present paper also attempts to discover how the writer explores the sense of dislocation and alienation felt with greater intensity in an alien setting