Migration and adapting to different cultures have become major global issues in the contemporary world. Diasporic Literature has a sense of alienation and has emerged as an outcome of migration. Dealing with alienation, nostalgia, quest of identity and displacement, Diasporic Literature addresses amalgamation and disorientation. The person, who has migrated from his homeland feels depersonalised or lost his identity and feels to see the self as unreal and this is not just applicable for the first-generation migrants, but, to second generation migrants as well, as they have to follow one culture within their houses and have to follow an entirely opposite culture outside their homes, which seems like an entirely different world altogether. As Salman Rushdie stated, “Exiles or emigrants or expatriates, are haunted by some sense of loss, some urge to reclaim, to look back, even at the risk of being mutilated into pillars of salt.” This difference in cultures inside and outside leads to psychological conflicts, which in turn lead to negative long-term effects. The migrants will start experiencing themselves to be isolated and are soon made to follow multiple cultures. This, in turn, puts these migrants under the immense pressure of multicultural. This paper, titled, Studying the dimensions of defining and redefining the identities through Jhumpa Lahiri’s ‘Interpreter of Maladies,’ aims at emphasising the feel of alienation, the sense of being lost and the nostalgia of homeland, psychological conflicts and the overlapping cultures through the characters of the anthology, ‘Interpreter of Maladies.’
Keywords:
Alienation, Psychological conflict, Diaspora, Multicultural, Geographical Demarcation
Introduction:
Diaspora involves migration of people. In “Interpreter of Maladies,” author Jhumpa Lahiri delves deeper into Indian (Bengali) immigrants’ hearts and pictures the psychological conflict. Also, it pictures the will to survive marginalisation and its impact. This drastic variation causes psychological conflicts and has devastating effects on migrants and they feel alienated. “Interpreter of Maladies” focuses on Indo-Americanised culture wherein we see people caught between two cultures. Many of the characters within Lahiri’s work “reflect the agony of shattered minds.” The anthology reveals her admirable grasp of biculturalism and reliable style. Lahiri’s stories describe universal sympathy the breakup of identities, the alienation and sense of loneliness experienced by all immigrants, giving voice to their pain and interested in their complex psychoses. The titular story revolves around Mr Kapasi, the driver-guide, Mr and Mrs Das, who live in America and have come to visit India. The author talks from the viewpoint of Mr Kapasi, who’s dece
