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44556

Shadows of Immigration : The Crisis of Indian Female Identity in Selected Works of Bharati Mukherjee

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Last updated: 22 Jan 2023

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Abstract

      The growing phenomena of immigration during the last two centuries has affected the demography of the host countries as well as dramatically shocked the immigrants themselves for discovering new horizons through which they would have never flown before. The paper examines the dynamic evolvement of the female identities of an Indian immigrant, Bharati Mukharjee, through a series of her literary works including: The Tiger's DaughterDays and Nights in Calcutta, Wife, Darkness, "Nostalgia," "A Wife's Story," "The Tenant," "The Management of Grief," Jasmine, and "Two Ways to Belong in America."  The analysis in this paper is anchored on the postcolonial theory with regard to issues such as gender, power, race, centre/margin and assimilation. It aims to explore the identity formation of the characters through psychoanalysis to reveal how the Western ideology and philosophy, mainly reflected through Jasmine and other female characters, have gradually altered them to what can be described as "different" from both their original roots and their new cloaks. The transformation can be compared to fine Chinese ceramics made in England. They have lost the uniqueness of their homeland. Though the stories are presented as examples of successful transformation, the findings of the study suggest that the inferiority complex of the Indian identity is dominantly reinforced through the emotional and intellectual denial of a whole civilization and its legacy, looking down upon their own heritage beside the celebration of the new colonizing approach. The controversial area to be investigated in other articles is whether the descendants of immigrants struggle to find who they are or they will have been fully integrated to their host countries.
 

DOI

10.21608/1807-000-004-007

Keywords

Bharati Mukherjee, Post-colonialism, feminism, immigrants, Immigration, diaspora, Indo-American, Identity, English literature

Authors

First Name

Noorah Kaddah Saad

Last Name

Alqahtani

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Volume

2

Article Issue

4

Related Issue

6922

Issue Date

2018-07-01

Receive Date

2018-04-11

Publish Date

2018-07-01

Page Start

163

Page End

185

Print ISSN

2537-0421

Online ISSN

2537-043X

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https://ajahs.journals.ekb.eg/article_44556.html

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https://ajahs.journals.ekb.eg/service?article_code=44556

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7

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المقالة الأصلية

Type Code

942

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Journal

Publication Title

المجلة العربية للآداب والدراسات الإنسانية

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https://ajahs.journals.ekb.eg/

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Article

Created At

22 Jan 2023