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Migration in the second half of the twentieth century has led to the emergence of new diasporas that have transformed both host societies as well as immigrants. Indian diasporic literature, written from the 1980s to the beginning of the twenty-first century, maps different trajectories of the diaspora and related experiences of dislocation, marginalization, appropriation, negotiation and self-refashioning in an alien society. The works of Salman Rushdie, Anita Desai and Jhumpa Lahiri explore the dilemma of belonging and reconfigure the concept of home to elucidate the diasporic consciousness. This seminar will investigate how displaced individuals grapple with the complexities of their colonial legacy, postcolonial realities, cross-cultural encounters and persisting social inequalities (gendered, religious and class). It will equally explore the relationship between Indian English diasporic literature and postcolonial theory.
Texts:
- Anita Desai, Baumgartner's Bombay (1988)
- Jhumpa Lahiri, The Namesake (2003)
- Kiran Desai, The Inheritance of Loss (2006)
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