Diasporic Consciousness and Third Space: A Study in Jhumpa Lahiri's The Namesake, Bharati Mukherjee's Jasmine, and Manjushree Thapa's Seasons of Flight

Abstract

This research explores the experiences of challenges and opportunities in the life of South Asian immigrants in America represented in Jhumpa Lahiri's The Namesake, Bharati Mukherjee's Jasmine and Manjushree Thapa's Seasons of Flight. Whereas The Namesake and Jasmine narrate the adventures of Indian immigrants in America, Thapa's narrative portrays the episodes in the life of a Nepali immigrant in America. The movement of these characters in the subsequent novels is followed closely in the theoretical light on the issue of formation of third space and diasporic double consciousness forwarded by theorists like Homi Bhabha, Stuart Hall, R. Radhakrishnan and others. Based on the hypothesis that the immigrant characters in the novel create their new identity from the residues of cultural, familial, national and linguistic loss in order to postpone the ultimate crisis of identity, this research work reveals those moments of extraordinary feat and galore through which these characters survive to establish their identity. Hence, the work underscores all the critical voices grounded together to celebrate the exuberance of immigration and finally undercuts the traditional notion about the life of diaspora that they are the wretched of the earth drafted to an ocean of unfamiliarity without proper and warm navigating jackets like home culture, religion, people, language, etc. In the process of research, the researcher happens to confront a revelation that indeed diaspora illumine the very nature of mankind in trying to create himself against the hardships of life, migrants' life is a life 'becoming in unbecoming.'