Dilemmas of the Diaspora

Diasporic writings have received sufficient critical attention. The writers of this genre deal with the lives of the geographically, culturally and spiritually displaced people and their dilemmas in the process of acculturation and assimilation. Dilemmas of the Diaspora bring into context the fictional concerns of the two most engaging writers in this domain: Bharati Mukherjee and Jhumpa Lahiri. Both the writers depict the lives of the people who oscillate between the two worlds and who struggle to come to terms with irksome life situations arising out of the act of migration. It juxtaposes the conflicts and resolutions of both first and second generation immigrants. The commonality between the two authors lies in their initiative to explore the problems of human existence. The book offers a critique of Bharati Mukherjee's popular novels,The Tiger's Daughter, Wife and Jasmine and bring out the novelist's perception of first generation immigrants. It also presents Jhumpa Lahiri's progressive standpoint of the immigrant problems from her magnum opus, The Interpreter of Maladies. The issues raised by the writers vary from context to context but indicate common roots and routes.