The Namesake: A Study of Cultural Dissonance

Abstract

The proposed research article is an attempt to make an analysis of the causes of cultural dissonance in the Jhumpa Lahiri’s novel, The Namesake. Cultural conflict has been a constant motif of Indian diasporic writers, presented by Lahiri in the form of Immigrant’s experience, in evocative manner. It is observed that for immigrants, the challenges of exile, feeling of displacement and longing for homeland and desire for acquiring identity in a new world is more explicit and distressing than for their offspring. The Namesake is basically a narrative of Indian Bengali family who comes to America for better future prospects; it discusses dilemma of cultural clash and identity in an alien land.