Prija Nair
Inspired by the vast spread of migration, immigration or emigration, Diasporic literature gainedprominence in the universal literature in the backdrop of post-colonial context, simultaneouslydeveloping with post-colonial literature. The process of transplantation makes the immigrant a victim of'rootlessness'. Today, we can say that the most important Indian writing is produced in the Diaspora bywriters like Kamala Markandaya, Anita Desai, Bharati Mukherjee, Salman Rushdie, V.S. Naipaul,Vikram Seth, Amitav Ghosh, Rohinton Mistry, Chitra Banerjee Divakaruni, Jhumpa Lahiri etc.Especially, Indian women diasporic writers have made their voice heard around the world, managed toexcel in all areas of literature and achieved global recognition. These female diasporic writers exhibit theirown physical and emotional conflicts in their works. Diasporic literature focuses mainly on themes likediscrimination, cultural shock, identity crisis, alienation, displacement, dilemma, depression, hybridityand nostalgia. This article explores the conflicts of cross-cultural identities and transplantation into a newculture in Jhumpa Lahiri's The Namesake, Kiran Desai's The Inheritance of Loss, Chitra BannerjeeDivakaruni's The Mistress of Spices and Bharati Mukherjee's Jasmine. It undertakes a comparativeanalysis, from the cultural and feministic points of view of the predicament of women protagonists inimmigration as presented in the selected novels
Cultural displacement, identity crisis, exile, nostalgia, alienation.