Immigrants Writing about Immigrants: A Transnational Reading on Bharati Mukherjee’s Jasmine and Manjushree Thapa’s Seasons of Flight
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Faculty of English
Abstract
This thesis is a comparative study made on Bharati Mukherjee’s Jasmine and
Manjushree Thapa’s Seasons of Flight with the lens of transnationalism. It explores
both the novels concerning the features of transnationalism. Both the authors,
Mukherjee and Thapa, are transnational writers who write in diaspora. They include
their transnational experience in their works. The novels thus are imbedded with
hybrid characters, culture and identity. The protagonists Jasmine of Jasmine and
Prema of Seasons of Flight, migrate to the West leaving their homeland to fulfill their
dream. Their migration is the first step towards transnationality which results in
displacement and transformation. This study observes the migrated female
protagonists, their transformation, hardships, and effort to adjust in their place of
settlement and create their identity. It finds that they create an alternative world by
connecting the new place with their root, their place of origin. It also highlights the
similarities and differences worthy enough to be noticed in these novels. On the
whole, it shows how the alternative world is created in the novels.