Possibilities of Diasporic Condition in Jhumpa Lahiri’s The Namesake

Abstract

This research paper scrutizes Jhumpa Lahiri’s The Namesake in the light of possibilities of diasporic condition on the basis of present age of mobilization and post-colonialism. Moreover, it deals with the concept of transnational identity characterized by immigration which ultimately leads to transculturation in ‘in-between space’. Since it deals with the positive aspect of diaspora, its prime emphasis is on the explication of generations, the parents and their children, showing how they adjust in new culture, the present America, and form their hybrid identity. Here, the technology, in the age of globalization, plays an important role for the formation of identities. The major characters such as Ashoke, Ashima and Gogol become more positive due to the development of technologies and increased global connection between people. So both the generations slowly but surely open up the space for cultural transformation that characterizes the in-between space as a third element which is Third Space. This space is neither assimilation nor otherness. Rather it is the blend of two cultures and languages where all the characters, even in diasporic situation, create hybrid transnational identity.