Bharati Mukherjee’s Struggle Against Cultural Balkanization: the Forging of a New American Immigrant Writing

This paper aims at analysing Bharati Mukherjee’s individual positioning as a woman writer by using the female characters caught between two different worlds, homes and cultures present in her works. After having undergone several phases in her life: as an exile from India, an Indian expatriate in Ca...

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Autores principales:	Mª Luz González, Juan Ignacio Oliva
Formato:	article
Lenguaje:	EN ES
Publicado:	Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona 2015
Materias:	bharati mukherjee indian diaspora identity dehyphenation & rehousement General Works A
Acceso en línea:	https://doaj.org/article/127d2e0ae712449b9e4d1e09868c6fa4
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spelling	oai:doaj.org-article:127d2e0ae712449b9e4d1e09868c6fa42021-12-02T16:53:54ZBharati Mukherjee’s Struggle Against Cultural Balkanization: the Forging of a New American Immigrant Writing2339-852310.5565/rev/indialogs.25https://doaj.org/article/127d2e0ae712449b9e4d1e09868c6fa42015-04-01T00:00:00Zhttps://revistes.uab.cat/indialogs/article/view/25https://doaj.org/toc/2339-8523This paper aims at analysing Bharati Mukherjee’s individual positioning as a woman writer by using the female characters caught between two different worlds, homes and cultures present in her works. After having undergone several phases in her life: as an exile from India, an Indian expatriate in Canada, a common immigrant and finally a citizen in the United States, all these diverse selves have been translated into her literary career. The writer thus envisions herself as a pioneer of new lands and literatures, initiating a process of re-forming and de-forming American culture, and redefining diaspora as a process of unhyphenated rehousement in which the cultural landscape in which one lives is no longer divided into a centre and its peripheries. Mukherjee celebrates “racial and cultural mongrelisation” but rejects cultural balkanization in its defence of the local over the national. She is neither ignorant nor insensitive to racism and oppression in the United States, yet her characters are always tenacious and feisty in their struggle to belong. Mukherjee stresses their quality as battlers, moved by the instinct to improve their lives. In her construction of America as the land of opportunity and success Mukherjee rejects homesickness and in so doing she clearly marks a difference from the Indian diaspora, though we consider that in defending this posture she goes to extremes, idealizing the “real” to create a personal and literary migrant cosmos.Mª Luz GonzálezJuan Ignacio OlivaUniversitat Autònoma de Barcelonaarticlebharati mukherjeeindian diasporaidentitydehyphenation & rehousementGeneral WorksAENESIndialogs: Spanish Journal of India Studies, Vol 2, Iss 0, Pp 72-92 (2015)
institution	DOAJ
collection	DOAJ
language	EN ES
topic	bharati mukherjee indian diaspora identity dehyphenation & rehousement General Works A
spellingShingle	bharati mukherjee indian diaspora identity dehyphenation & rehousement General Works A Mª Luz González Juan Ignacio Oliva Bharati Mukherjee’s Struggle Against Cultural Balkanization: the Forging of a New American Immigrant Writing
description	This paper aims at analysing Bharati Mukherjee’s individual positioning as a woman writer by using the female characters caught between two different worlds, homes and cultures present in her works. After having undergone several phases in her life: as an exile from India, an Indian expatriate in Canada, a common immigrant and finally a citizen in the United States, all these diverse selves have been translated into her literary career. The writer thus envisions herself as a pioneer of new lands and literatures, initiating a process of re-forming and de-forming American culture, and redefining diaspora as a process of unhyphenated rehousement in which the cultural landscape in which one lives is no longer divided into a centre and its peripheries. Mukherjee celebrates “racial and cultural mongrelisation” but rejects cultural balkanization in its defence of the local over the national. She is neither ignorant nor insensitive to racism and oppression in the United States, yet her characters are always tenacious and feisty in their struggle to belong. Mukherjee stresses their quality as battlers, moved by the instinct to improve their lives. In her construction of America as the land of opportunity and success Mukherjee rejects homesickness and in so doing she clearly marks a difference from the Indian diaspora, though we consider that in defending this posture she goes to extremes, idealizing the “real” to create a personal and literary migrant cosmos.
format	article
author	Mª Luz González Juan Ignacio Oliva
author_facet	Mª Luz González Juan Ignacio Oliva
author_sort	Mª Luz González
title	Bharati Mukherjee’s Struggle Against Cultural Balkanization: the Forging of a New American Immigrant Writing
title_short	Bharati Mukherjee’s Struggle Against Cultural Balkanization: the Forging of a New American Immigrant Writing
title_full	Bharati Mukherjee’s Struggle Against Cultural Balkanization: the Forging of a New American Immigrant Writing
title_fullStr	Bharati Mukherjee’s Struggle Against Cultural Balkanization: the Forging of a New American Immigrant Writing
title_full_unstemmed	Bharati Mukherjee’s Struggle Against Cultural Balkanization: the Forging of a New American Immigrant Writing
title_sort	bharati mukherjee’s struggle against cultural balkanization: the forging of a new american immigrant writing
publisher	Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona
publishDate	2015
url	https://doaj.org/article/127d2e0ae712449b9e4d1e09868c6fa4
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Bharati Mukherjee’s Struggle Against Cultural Balkanization: the Forging of a New American Immigrant Writing

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