Iqra Manzoor
In her two major
novels The Namesake and The Lowland Jhumpa Lahiri, a seminal
South Asian Diaspora writer, traces the journey of three students (Ashoke,
Subhash and Gauri) in diaspora. Ashoke and Subhash migrate to America in order
to accomplish their academic goals and to have a better life opportunity, and
Gauri accompanies her second husband Subhash to America and decides to continue
her education. The present research work will analyse both the novels The Namesake and The Lowland to assert this argument that the journey and struggle
of Ashoke and Subhash as students in
diaspora is different from that of Gauri i.e. the journey of a female student diaspora is far
more complicated and arduous than that of a male student diaspora. Ashoke and
Subhash migrate to America at their will and with the consent of their parents
who somehow take pride in the fact that their children are studying in America
while the migration of Gauri to America follows a different trajectory. She is
able to migrate to America only after marrying Subhash and has to topple down
many patriarchal structures to secure her academic career.
Student Diaspora; Journey; migration; patriarchy; struggle
VOL.14, ISSUE No.1, March 2022