Diasporic Consciousness and Identity Trauma in Jhumpa Lahiri’s The Namesake

Abstract

In the contemporary era, immigration, exile and expatriation are related to home, identity, nostalgia, memory and isolation. These are the recurrent theme in the diasporic writings of the post-colonial writers like V.S. Naipaul, Salman Rushdie, Bharati Mukherjee, Jhumpa Lahiri and so on. Identity is a topical issue in the contemporary study of culture with many ramifications for the study of ethnicity, class, gender, race, sexuality and subcultures. It becomes an issue when something assumed to be fixed, coherent, and stable is displaced by the experience of doubt and uncertainty. When a period of uncertainty and confusion upsets a person’s identity, it becomes insecure, usually due to a change in the expected aims or role in society. This identity trauma brings a sense of longing and loss as seen in Lahiri’s stories.  The present article focuses on the first generation and second generation immigrants adherence to the old and new land as can be found in Jhumpa Lahiri’s The Namesake. Lahiri represents her characters struggling to balance the two worlds that involve the issues of immigration, race, class, and culture.