rrogating the Generational Disparity in Diasporic Sensibility in Jhumpa Lahiri’s The Namesake

Abstract

Abstract

Diasporic consciousness with all its social, political and cultural ramifications has remained an essential concern in the subject-matter of Indian fiction particularly in English since long. The Namesake by Nilanjana Sudeshna Lahiri popularly known as Jhumpa Lahiri aligned with this tradition reflects, crucially in a more subtle way, on the disparity in diasporic sensibility pertaining to two successive Bengali generations inhabiting U.S.A. Herself a representative of the second generation of Indian diaspora in America, Lahiri accentuates her personal observation which is worth quoting in this regard ? ?My parents? generation made their presence known, but not quite in the same way. It’s my generation that really seeped into the culture and spread out and spread through it. People of Indian origin, like myself they?re still engineers and doctors and professors but they are also writers, cooks, dancers, rock musicians, actors. They are not here for the one purpose of having respectable job.? According to Lahiri this is ?a matter of generation coming-of-age?. In this paper attempts have been made to explore this evolution in diasporic sensibilities from the first to second generation of Indian diaspora in U.S.A along with every minutia of the proceeding of this ?generation coming-of-age?.