Western Hegemony and Discrimination in Kiran Desai’s The Inheritance of Loss

Abstract

This thesis analyzes western hegemony and discrimination in the lives of the characters in Kiran Desai’s novel The Inheritance of Loss. It studies how the characters in the novel are attracted towards the West to elevate their career. At the same time, this study explores how some of the characters are humiliated and discriminated through the fictionalized discourse. By using Ruth Wodak’s Critical Discourse Analysis the study analyzes the discrimination of the third world people; like that, the subalternity of characters has been read through Gyatri Spivak’s idea of subalternity and alienation of characters through Bhabhian concept of cultural hybridity. The characters in the novel are alienated even in their own country after returning from western countries. Their in-betweenness has created loneliness among their family and society like the characters Jemubhai Patel and Sai. Finally, this thesis illustrates how people of the third world feel sense of loss; believe in the myth of western superiority and the experience as being inferior and subaltern because of the imperial impacts through the lives of fictionalized characters in the novel.