Acta Marisiensis. Philologia

2019, Volume 1

Multiple Identities and Emerging Selves in Bharati Mukherjee’s Jasmine

Author(s):
Smaranda Ștefanovici, Assoc. Prof., PhD., UMFST Târgu Mureș
Chiluț (Muntean) Florina-Gabriela, MA student

Abstract:
The article continues my former analysis of “Social Identity in Bharati Mukherjee’s Jasmine”, focusing on new aspects related to the characters’ multiple identities and how different factors (religion, race and ethnicity, customs and beliefs) shape these identities. It highlights Mukherjee’s deviation from postcolonial and diasporic literature. In fashioning new identities, unlike the postcolonial lament for lost origins, Mukherjee argues for the optimism of the immigrant experience, in which the characters are both victims and survivors. Immigration, in her view, unfetters positive energies in the process of transformation. This positive attitude makes her characters oscillate between names and social identities, which seems to be the only way of entering and adapting to this new and unfamiliar world. ‘Home’ becomes a fluid notion, which is negotiated by her characters, a possibility you can define wherever you can feel at home. Binary –old and new- customs, traditions, and beliefs co-exist and negotiate the characters’ cultural conflicts in a flexible manner.

DOI: https://doi.org/10.2478/amph-2022-0008

Pages: 77-84

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2019, Volume 1 Multiple Identities and Emerging Selves in Bharati Mukherjee’s Jasmine

2019, Volume 1

Multiple Identities and Emerging Selves in Bharati Mukherjee’s Jasmine