NEGOTIATIONS OF THE DIASPORIC SELF AND COUPLES' LIVES
NEGOTIATIONS OF THE DIASPORIC SELF AND COUPLES' LIVES

Summary/Abstract: This article is dedicated to a discussion about the multivoicedness noticeable in some of Uma Parameswaran, Anita Rau Badami and Shauna Singh Baldwin’s immigrant female characters. It will be shown that the authors describe this issue either as a source of tension or as a harmonious combination of Eastern and Western mentalities.The present research relies on theories of acculturation and diasporic criticism, which form the starting point of the argument. The literary analysis will demonstrate that the negotiation among the often divergent selves of the selected characters shapes their relationships with their partners in intimacy, mirroring, to a certain extent, the difficulties immigrants face in their social encounters. For the purpose of this literary interpretation, the author chose two of Uma Parameswaran’s short stories, namely “What Was Always Hers” and “Maru and the M. M. Syndrome”, an exploration of Leela Bhat’s struggles, one of Anita Rau Badami’s protagonists in Can You Hear the Nightbird Call? and an analysis of the heroine in Shauna Singh Baldwin’s short story “Devika”.

• Details
• Contents