The word 'diaspora’, derived from the Greek word diaspeiro, literally means scattering or dispersion of the people from their homeland. Diasporic writing has been increasingly receiving academic and disciplinary recognition. It has emerged as a distinct literary genre. A large number of people have migrated from India to various alien lands under 'forced exiles' or 'self-imposed exiles'. Some of them have made a mark in the field of writing. These immigrant writers reflect, on the one hand, their attachment to the motherland and on the other, their feeling of alienation and rootlessness.
The diasporic writings which are also known as 'expatriate writings' or 'immigrant writings' give voice to the traumatic experiences of the writers when they are on the rack owing to the clash of two cultures or the racial discrimination they undergo. Immigration proves a pleasant experience only to a few immigrants who succeed in assimilating themselves with new geographical, cultural, social and psychological environment. To most of the diasporic writers, immigration is not a delectable experience. They often find themselves sandwiched between two cultures. The feeling of nostalgia, a sense of loss and anxiety to reinvent home obsess them which find expression, consciously or unconsciously, in their writings.
The present volume is a collection of twenty-two research papers on the literary works of various eminent diasporic writers. They all voice the anguish of the people, living far away from their native land and being' discriminated on grounds of race, colour or creed. The writers included in the list are A.K. Ramanujan, Uma Parameswaran, Vikram Seth, Anita Desai, Bharati Mukherjee, Jhumpa Lahiri, Rohinton Mistry, Kiran Desai and Chitra Banerjee Divakaruni. Besides, there are papers on the works of some emerging writers like Iqbal Ramoowalia, Yasmine Gooneratne and Ann Bhalla. There is a variety of research papers on the literary works of these diasporic writers along with the articles on the theoretical aspect of diaspora.
The book will be highly useful to the teachers and students of English Literature in various Indian universities, as well as to the researchers particularly those working in the field of Indian diasporic literature.
Malti Agarwal is Reader and Head, Department of English, N.A.5. (P.G.) College, Meerut. She has been teaching postgraduate classes since 1974 and is actively engaged in guiding research. She has presented a good number of research papers in various national and international seminars and conferences and published articles in journals of repute. She has authored many books which include Professional Communication (2 vols.); Technical Writing in English and Objective English for Competitions. She has to her credit an edited anthology entitled New Perspectives on Indian English Writings. She takes keen interest in organizing seminars and conferences.
Diaspora is an emerging word in literature. Literature produced by the diasporic writers explores the problems and possibilities engendered by the experience of migrancy and diasporic life. Needless to say, it is gaining tremendous popularity among the lovers of literature.
The word 'diaspora', derived from the Greek word diaspeiro, literally means scattering or dispersion of the people from their homeland. It was first used by the Greeks for the movements of the Jews away from their homeland. Today, the term is applied to a number of ethnic and racial groups, living in an alien land. People today are migrating to different parts of the world for one reason or the other. From India too, millions of people have migrated to various alien lands under 'forced exiles' or 'self-imposed exiles'. Some of them have made a mark in the field of writing. These immigrant writers reflect, on the one hand, their attachment to the motherland and on the other, their feeling of alienation and rootlessness. They suffer from psychic trauma and haunting presence of their lost homeland- the land of their birth-and also suffer from the anguish of rein venting home in the land of their choice.
The diasporic writings which are also known as 'expatriate writings' or 'immigrant writings' largely give voice to the traumatic experiences of the writers when they are on the rack owing to the clash of two cultures or the racial discrimination they undergo. Immigration proves a pleasant experience only to a few immigrants who succeed in assimilating themselves with new geographical, cultural, social and psychological environment. To most of the diasporic writers, immigration is not a delectable experience. They often find themselves sandwiched between two cultures. The feeling of nostalgia, a sense of loss and anxiety to rein vent home obsess them which find expression, consciously or unconsciously, in their writings. There are many diasporic writers, scattered in various countries like Britain, America, Canada, Australia, Malaysia, Mauritius, East Africa, Fiji, Trinidad and Tobago and so on. The writers like V.S. Naipaul, Vikram Seth, Rohinton Mistry, Uma Parameswaran, Salman Rushdie, Lakshmi Gill, Yasmin Gooneratne, and many others have left their country and settled abroad.
The present volume consists of twenty-two research papers, based on the works of the authors living in Canada, Australia and America. Indian diaspora has global presence. There are more than 20 million people of Indian origin, spread in 136 countries. They want their children to adopt Indian values. The works of all those among the Indi~n diaspora who have taken to writing exhibit their faith in hereditary cultural values. Most of the papers in this anthology are on such Indian writers who left their homeland either for earning livelihood or in pursuit of higher knowledge. The papers in this anthology study various issues relating to immigration like acculturation, multiculturation, transformation and marginalization which are reflected through the experiences of the protagonists during the Course of assimilation in alien land.
The first two articles included in this volume cover the theoretical aspect of the diasporic literature. They also provide a historical and critical preview of the diasporic writers whether they are from India, Sri Lanka or from any other part of the world. A.N. Dwivedi's paper "Diasporic Writings in English" highlights the features of the diasporic literature, especially the literature of the Indian diaspora. Shrawan K. Sharma in his article "The World of Diasporic Poetry in Canada" discusses the distinct features of the diasporic poetry in Canada. Likewise, Samina Khan in her paper "Cultural Discordance: A Study of Diasporic Writers in Canada" studies the theme of cultural discordance in the diasporic writings in Canada.
Among the Indian diaspora, Bharati Mukherjee occupies a distinctive place since she redefines the concept of diaspora. To most of the diasporic writers, immigration is synonymous with 'unhousement' and 'rootlessness', but to her it involves a process of gain. Her characters, in long as well as in short fiction, are set against divergent ethnic and cultural background. Though they encounter cultural crisis yet they soon explore new ways of 'belonging' and 'becoming' in the country of their choice. a.p. Budholia in his paper offers a peep into the extent of acculturation when he compares Bharati Mukherjee's Jasmine to Anita Desai's Journey to Ithaca. The papers by Beena Agarwal, Hemalatha K., Abha Shukla Kaushik, Ram Sharma and Archana Trivedi study various concerns in Bharati Mukherjee's novels.
Jhumpa Lahiri is a well-known name among the Indian diaspora of second generation. Next two articles throw light on the distinctiveness of two cultures which often traps her characters as shown in Interpreter of Maladies. Rohinton Mistry, who won the Governor General Award for fiction, left India for Canada. His books, like other diasporic writings, are concerned with "how the self is represented, seen and remembered against the backdrop of the past". My own paper studies Mistry's novel Family Matters as a diasporic text, whereas the article by j.P. Savita dwells on Mistry's short stories.
The book includes articles on the emerging writers of diaspora. Articles contributed by K.A. Agarwal, T.S. Anand and Sangeeta Das are attempts to highlight the works of the budding diasporic writers. The next two papers, authored by Beena Agarwal and Shalini Gupta, provide a close analysis of Chitra Banerjee Divakaruni's two story collections-The Unknown Errors of Our Lives and Arranged Marriage. A volume on the diasporic literature remains incomplete unless it refers to the works of Kiran Desai, the youngest winner of the prestigious I Booker Prize and daughter of universally acclaimed Indian novelist, Anita Desai. The article on her novel, The Inheritance 0 Loss, is an attempt to; assess if the author is another NRI writer obsessed by the themes like dislocation.
Among the older generation of the Indian diaspora, A.K. Ramanujan and Vma Parameswaran are the stalwarts. Neeta in her paper on Ramanujan analyses the nature of his poetry whereas Anuradha Verma studies Uma Parameswaran's story The Door I Shut Behind Me as a diasporic text.
Vikram Serh has emerged as a literary icon and is known all over the world for his unique technique and style. Malti Sharma in her article examines the fictional works of Vikram Seth and opines that human bonds-as strong as a rope of steel and as soft as a sigh-have been the foundation of his fictional works.
I thank all the Contributors who have enriched this anthology with their well-researched articles. The book will be highly useful to the teachers and students of English Literature in various Indian universities, as well as to the researchers, particularly those working in the field of Indian diasporic literature.
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