Encountering The ‘Other’: Diasporic Consciousness in Jasmine and Brick Lane

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Dr. Sangeeta Kotwal

Abstract

Bharati Mukherjee and Monica Ali are both diasporic writers, from India and Bangladesh, respectively. Although Mukherjee’s growing up years were spent in India, it was her experience an immigrant in Canada, where she spent almost fourteen years of her life from 1966 to 1980, which provided her with the themes of her novels. The racism she encountered in Canada forced her to focus on issues such as cultural conflict, alienation, and gender discrimination, even gender violence. Her novel Jasmine encapsulates the experience of an Indian female immigrant to the US who despite various odds and hurdles, is able to survive and prevail. Monica Ali, a Dhaka born British writer, takes up gender problems as well as the issues of migrant community of Bangladesh and was hailed as the best of ‘young British novelists’ in 2003 for her debut novel Brick Lane. The novel explores the life of Nazneen, an immigrant in London, who becomes an embodiment of cultural conflict between east and west. The paper aims to bring out the fact that both women protagonists, Nazneen and Jasmine, as immigrants, adapt and survive due to the status of being the ‘other,’ which has been accorded to them since birth. Gender discrimination, which is a part of their life, turns them into fighters and survivors. The ‘otherness’ of their status, helps them acclimatise, while highlighting the commonality of their experience in terms of both, as females and immigrants.

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How to Cite
Dr. Sangeeta Kotwal. “Encountering The ‘Other’: Diasporic Consciousness in Jasmine and Brick Lane”. The Creative Launcher, vol. 7, no. 2, Apr. 2022, pp. 102-7, doi:10.53032/tcl.2022.7.2.13.
Section
Research Articles

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