cultural identity in Jhumpa Lahari's THE NAMESAKE
THEIVANAI AMMAL COLLEGE FOR WOMEN Cultural Identity In Jhumpa Lahiri’s THE NAMESAKE
Jhumpa Lahiri, the author of The Namesake, was born in London, the daughter of Indian immigrants from the state of West Bengal. Her family moved to the United States when she was three. Lahiri grew up in Kingston, Rhode Island, where her father Amar Lahiri works as a librarian at the University of Rhode Island. When she began kindergarten in Kingston, Rhode Island, Lahiri 's teacher decided to call her by her pet name, Jhumpa, because it was easier to pronounce than her "proper names" Lahiri. She graduated from South Kingstown High School and received her B.A. in English literature from Barnard College in 1989.
Lahiri then received multiple degrees from Boston University: an M.A. in English, M.F.A. in Creative Writing, M.A. in Comparative Literature, and a Ph.D. in Renaissance Studies. She took a fellowship at Provincetown 's Fine Arts Work Center, which lasted for the next two years (1997–1998). Lahiri has taught creative writing at Boston University and the Rhode Island School of Design. In 2001, Lahiri married Alberto Vourvoulias-Bush, a journalist who was then Deputy Editor of TIME Latin America, and who is now Senior Editor of Fox News Latino. Lahiri lives in Fort Greene, Brooklyn with her husband and their two children, Octavio (b. 2002) and Noor (b. 2005). In 2003, Lahiri published The Namesake, her first novel. The story spans over thirty years in the life of the Ganguli family. The Calcutta-born parents emigrated as young adults to the United States, where their children, Gogol and Sonia, grow up experiencing the constant generational and cultural gap with their parents. A film adaptation of The Namesakewas released in March 2007, directed by Mira Nair and starring Kal Penn as Gogol and Bollywood stars Tabu and Irrfan Khan as his parents. Lahiri herself made a cameo as "Aunt Jhumpa".
The present paper explores to what extent do the
Jhumpa Lahiri, the author of The Namesake, was born in London, the daughter of Indian immigrants from the state of West Bengal. Her family moved to the United States when she was three. Lahiri grew up in Kingston, Rhode Island, where her father Amar Lahiri works as a librarian at the University of Rhode Island. When she began kindergarten in Kingston, Rhode Island, Lahiri 's teacher decided to call her by her pet name, Jhumpa, because it was easier to pronounce than her "proper names" Lahiri. She graduated from South Kingstown High School and received her B.A. in English literature from Barnard College in 1989.
Lahiri then received multiple degrees from Boston University: an M.A. in English, M.F.A. in Creative Writing, M.A. in Comparative Literature, and a Ph.D. in Renaissance Studies. She took a fellowship at Provincetown 's Fine Arts Work Center, which lasted for the next two years (1997–1998). Lahiri has taught creative writing at Boston University and the Rhode Island School of Design. In 2001, Lahiri married Alberto Vourvoulias-Bush, a journalist who was then Deputy Editor of TIME Latin America, and who is now Senior Editor of Fox News Latino. Lahiri lives in Fort Greene, Brooklyn with her husband and their two children, Octavio (b. 2002) and Noor (b. 2005). In 2003, Lahiri published The Namesake, her first novel. The story spans over thirty years in the life of the Ganguli family. The Calcutta-born parents emigrated as young adults to the United States, where their children, Gogol and Sonia, grow up experiencing the constant generational and cultural gap with their parents. A film adaptation of The Namesakewas released in March 2007, directed by Mira Nair and starring Kal Penn as Gogol and Bollywood stars Tabu and Irrfan Khan as his parents. Lahiri herself made a cameo as "Aunt Jhumpa".
The present paper explores to what extent do the
Cited: Lahiri, Jhumpa. The Namesake. London: Harper Collins, 2003. Heinze, Ruediger. A Diasporic overcoat?: Naming and affection in Jhumpa Lahiri’s The Namesake. Journal of Post colonial writing 4.3, 2007. 65-76. Lahiri, Jhumpa. The Namesake. Critique 50.1, 2008. 111-125.