Representation of Transnational identity in Chitra Banerjee Divakaruni's The mistress of spice
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Department of English
Abstract
The present research paper analyzes the fictional postcolonial text The
Mistress of Spices authored by the notable south Asian postcolonial writer, Chitra
Banerjee Divakaruni. It argues that the writer employs her central protagonist as an
agency of transnational identity as a tool to settle the cultural clash between the two
cultural worlds: Eastern and Western as represented by Tilo, Geeta, Lalita and
Raven respectively. It further explores how Divakaruni offers the new social
phenomenon of transnationalism as an instrument to address the cultural complexity
instigated by the encounter between the eastern and western cultural values in the
multicultural society of America. The state of being transnational represents the
possibility of having two identities, two homes, two families, and two cultures at the
same time. Despite being deterritorialized from her original culture and geographical
locations, Tilo exercises the typical Indian tradition of Ayurbedic business in Oakland
and also serves the non-Indian people. Her romantic affair with Raven, an American
boy, further shows her transnational simultaneity. To further support the argument,
the paper incorporates the theoretical insights from the theory of Transnationalism
accompanied by Paul Jay, Natasha Garrett, Nyla Ali Khan, Steven Vertovec, Jahan
Ramazani, Homi K. Bhabha's theoretical notion of Hybrid Identity. Likewise, The
paper sheds the light on the postcolonial encounter between eastern and western
values in the multicultural society and concludes with findings that transnational
movement can replace the essentialist notion of fixed identity and practically resolve
the cultural clash in the multicultural society.
Key Words: transnational identity, diaspora, transnationalism, globalization, agency