European Journal of Molecular & Clinical Medicine

Abstract

Diaspora is a term that encompasses cultural and emotional conflicts. Nationality and nativity contradict each other in the diasporic context. Nativity is an innate emotional bonding that creates a sense of belongingness, while nationality limits itself to the physical presence. Diasporic writings record the immigrants ‘strivings to feel the warmth of native land in a foreign nation across the boundaries. Adaptation in a foreign country is highly influenced by the socio-cultural factors and in other words, these are the crucial factors in determining the immigrant life of an individual. Diasporic literature focuses on reflecting the realistic experiences of the people away from their homeland and also in breaking the myths surrounding their lives. Though India within itself has multicultural shades, Indian immigrants in other countries are still encountering the disillusionment and struggle to cope up with the different environment. The British colonialism in India plays a pivotal role in the migration of Indians to various countries, especially, England and America. Most of the Indian diasporic writings deal with the immigrants’ social and psychological confrontations in these two countries and the effects are greater upon the women due to their social status. Jhumpa Lahiri had written vintage diasporic novels and stories in which she takes the readers across the nations to visualize the life of a migrant from a developing nation to a developed nation. As a woman writer, her representations of women characters are highly realistic and deeply moving. Her famous short story collection, Interpreter of Maladies includes nine short stories and each story projects the different dimensions of diaspora through the various characters sketched in the story. The paper attempts to decode the myriad diasporic elements in Jhumpa Lahiri’s short stories and also to study the impact of diasporic experiences over the ages.