Cultural Ambivalence in Manju Kapur's The Immigrant

Abstract

This thesis is about the cultural ambivalence of the protagonists, Nina and Ananda, who are colonial subjects torn between the intersections of two cultures- their own Indian culture and colonizers' culture. In-between attraction and repulsion of both cultures, their subject is constructed amidst the cultural, socio-economical and political power play of both Western and Indian institutions. This research analyzes the main characters' ambivalent situation in foreign country as conceptualized by the concept of Homi K. Bhaha, Bill Ashcroft, Gareth Griffiths, Helen Tiffin and Leela Gandhi, which remains the primary tool of analysis. Immigrant couple tries to adjust in unfamiliar space but cannot adjust completely due to meeting of two cultures. Consequently, neither they entirely accept nor reject the western culture. Such situation of fascination and rejection at the sametime,results in their position of cultural ambivalence. Thus, the major significance of this thesis is to dramatize the in- between and ambiguous position of characters due to the amalgamation of two different cultures.