Crossing the Border: A Postcolonial Discourse of Double Consciousness and Multiple Solidarities with Reference to the Texts Brick Lane and The Mistress of Spices

Abstract

In the contemporary globalized periphery, the postcolonial diasporic women appear to be the victims of “double colonization.” While crossing the border of their nations, these doubly-exiled migrant women carry the baggage of their fragmented identities. This paper aims at exploring the double consciousness and multiple solidarities of the protagonists in the texts “The Mistress of Spices” by Chitra Banerjee Divakaruni and “Bricklane” by Monica Ali. These books and their cinematic adaptations which are discussed in the milieu of diasporic work of art, articulate how these transnational women break the perceived socio-cultural and sexual norms. They maintain the essence of the “third world woman’s identity” by dealing with the trauma and turbulence of Indian Tilo and Bangladeshi Nazneen. This paper thus aims at highlighting the involvement of these cosmopolitan women who obtain physical, psychological, sexual, and spiritual liberation along with re-asserting their identities as individuals.