LANGUAGE IN INDIA

Strength for Today and Bright Hope for Tomorrow

Volume 14:11 November 2014
ISSN 1930-2940

Managing Editor: M. S. Thirumalai, Ph.D.
Editors: B. Mallikarjun, Ph.D.
         Sam Mohanlal, Ph.D.
         B. A. Sharada, Ph.D.
         A. R. Fatihi, Ph.D.
         Lakhan Gusain, Ph.D.
         Jennifer Marie Bayer, Ph.D.
         S. M. Ravichandran, Ph.D.
         G. Baskaran, Ph.D.
         L. Ramamoorthy, Ph.D.
         C. Subburaman, Ph.D. (Economics)
Assistant Managing Editor: Swarna Thirumalai, M.A.

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Cultural Shock:
A Major Issue in Bharati Mukherjee’s Novels

P. Rajeswari and Dr. K. Balamurugan

Abstract

Bharati Mukherjee is a Third World Feminist writer whose preoccupation is dealing with the problems and issues related to South Asian Women, particularly India, though she claims that her feelings are more like those of the women of North America. She differs from other writers in the way she deals with her heroines (Indian women immigrants), predominantly with their cultural shock that that overthrows them in life directly or indirectly. This is illustrated very clearly by Tara Banerjee in ‘The Tiger’s Daughter’, Dimple in ‘Wife’, Jyoti in ‘Jasmine ‘and Devi in ‘Leave it to me’, three sisters - Padma, Parvathi and Tara in ‘Desirable Daughters’ and Tara in ‘The Tree Bride’. Though the heroines are described as bold and assertive, they do not escape from this particular behavior born of ‘culture shock’. They have the strong potentiality for adaptability; they stand on firm ground to change their lives really, if necessary, and/or accept the bitter truth of their lives anyhow. This paper tries to capture the main reason, the quintessential concept behind the dilemma of all the heroines of her novels.

Keywords: South Asian Women, Cultural shock, Women immigrants, Feminist writer

Introduction – A New Kind of Pioneer

The Indian born (Bengali) writer Bharati Mukherjee is one of the popular Indian writers in English from America. The immigrant writers are of two categories. First come the “Willing Immigrant Writers” who are settled in America from Europe and Asia and who have made it their home. The second category consists of the “Unwilling Immigrant Writers” of American origin whose forefathers were brought to America in some slave ships. But Bharati Mukherjee has gone on record saying that she considers herself an American writer, and not an Indian expatriate writer. In an 1989 interview with Amanda Meer, Mukherjee said: "I totally consider myself an American writer, and that has been my big battle: to get to realize that my roots as a writer are no longer, if they ever were, among Indian writers, but that I am writing about the territory about the feelings, of a new kind of pioneer here in America. I’m the first among Asian immigrants to be making this distinction between immigrant writing and expatriate writing. Most Indian writers prior to this, have still thought of themselves as Indians, and their literary inspiration, has come from India. India has been the source, and home. Whereas I’m saying, those are wonderful roots, but now my roots are here and my emotions are here in North America."

This is only the beginning part of the article. PLEASE CLICK HERE TO READ THE ENTIRE ARTICLE IN PRINTER-FRIENDLY VERSION.

P. Rajeswari, M.A., M.Phil., Ph.D. Research Scholar
Bharatiyar University
Coimbatore - 641 046
Tamilnadu
India
rajeswary18@gmail.com

Dr. K. Balamurugan, M.A, M.Phil., MBA, M.A. (ELT), PGCTE, PGDTM, B.LISc, Ph.D.
Bharatiyar College of Engineering & Technology
Karaikal 609 602
Pondicherry U T (Puducherry)
India
englishbala@gmail.com
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