Fragmentation of the Home and Reconstructing Identity: In Jhumpa Lahiri’s Namesake

Abstract

Diaspora women writers have emerged as significant voices in contemporary literature, highlighting themes of memory, migration, and modernity to express the difficulties of identity, displacement, and cultural discussions. Since the mid-1960s, these writers have presented the experiences of women who discussed the tensions between their homelands and host countries, addressing issues of displacement, belonging, gender roles, and cultural survival. Their narratives reveal the multidimensional challenges of migration such as loneliness, cultural shock, and challenges to patriarchal and colonial dominance while exploring the reformative dominance of transcultural experience in shaping modern identities. By weaving together personal and collective memories, diaspora women writers critically engage with modernity as a space of hybridity and cultural adaptation, thereby inspiring the discourse on global migration and gendered experiences in cross-boundary settings.
Prominent figures like Bharati Mukherjee, Chitra Banerjee Divakaruni, Salman Rushdie, V.S. Naipaul, Jhumpa Lahiri, and Meena Alexander reflect this vibrant literary tradition that redefines notions of home, identity, and womanhood in the diaspora. This tradition explores memory, migration, and modernity through the lens of prominent diaspora writers. The experiences of migration and displacement are interconnectedly interlinked with the use of memory and nostalgia as literary tools for identity formation and cultural continuity. This paper explores mentioned themes in The Namesake by Jhumpa Lahiri.