Gender, Place, and Identity of South Asian Women

Cultural Translation, Hybrid Identity, and Third Space in Jhumpa Lahiri’s Interpreter of Maladies

“…For this reason, she constantly tries to adhere to the traditions of her society and culture. Her reluctance to integrate into American culture is partly rooted in the established gender expectations and norms within the Indian culture, in which women are considered the guardians and symbols of Indian tradition and spirituality (Anuar & Asl, 2021Asl, 2022;Keikhosrokiani & Asl, 2022;Lamb, 2009). Identity, as Bhabha (1994) observes, "is never a priori, nor a finished product; it is only ever the problematic process of access to an image of totality" (p. 51).…”

“…The South Asian American writer Jhumpa Lahiri recommends herself for the study as she has been publicly and critically acknowledged as one of the foremost contemporary writers on experiences of migration, transculturation, and crosscultural translation (Asl & Abdullah, 2017;Cardozo, 2012;Neutill, 2012). When facing the opportunities and challenges of international displacement, Lahiri's fictional characters constantly translate the relationship between their national and diasporic cultures to create a meaningful space of their own and circumvent alienation, loneliness, and in-betweenness (Alvarez, 2021;Asl, 2018Asl, , 2022. In this article, we draw upon Bhabha's theories to argue that Lahiri's diasporic sensibility situates her in an in-between, liminal position that enables her to form a multi-faceted presentation of South Asian diasporic life.…”