Contribution to collective works (Parts of books)
Mapping Out the ‘Time Zones’ of Diaspora in Bharati Mukherjee’s Desirable Daughters
Munos, Delphine
2012In Makokha, J. K. S.; Wawrzinek, Jennifer; West-Pavlov, Russell (Eds.) Border-Crossings: Narrative and Demarcation in Postcolonial Literatures and Media
Peer reviewed
 

Files


Full Text
Munos_DD_last version.pdf
Author preprint (231.86 kB)
Request a copy

All documents in ORBi are protected by a user license.

Send to



Details



Keywords :
Bharati Mukherjee; India; Indian Literature; Diaspora
Abstract :
[en] Although Bharati Mukherjee is famous, or rather infamous, for her shameless embrace of America and its melting-pot ideology, in Desirable Daughters India, the homeland, is unexpectedly made to re-enter the stage of immigrant identity construction. In many respects it would seem that it has now become untenable to represent immigrant identity in terms of a one-directional movement from “India” to “America.” In Desirable Daughters the rise of India, the accelerated time/space compression of late capitalism, the post-90s paradigm shift in matters of transnational migration, the emphasis on return migrations and the emergence of a new global interaction indeed dramatically outflank Mukherjee’s previous narrative of American “exceptionalism” – which suddenly seems dated by comparison. By portraying the complex transnational network of connections operating between RIs (Resident Indians) and NRIs (Non Resident Indians), Mukherjee’s book gestures towards the “de-spatialization” of immigrant identity construction and its consequent “re-metaphorization” in terms of “time zones.” What is more, the increasingly compelling influence of contemporary India on the Indo-American diasporic subjectivity marks a “back to the future” return of the repressed which temporally repositions migrant identity between a ghostly time of repetition and a “hauntology” of new becomings. What Mukherjee suggests, I will contend, is that immigrant agency and self-fashioning cannot be associated anymore with the “pioneering spirit” of forward-looking characters that discard their “Indianness” upon (geographical) entry into the West. In my reading of Desirable Daughters the protagonist’s zigzagging path to self-transformation will be emphasized, so that it will become apparent that time has become the fourth space through which new spaces for diasporic identity can be renegotiated.
Research center :
CEREP - Centre d'Enseignement et de Recherche en Études Postcoloniales - ULiège
Disciplines :
Literature
Author, co-author :
Munos, Delphine  ;  Université de Liège - ULiège > Département des langues et littératures modernes > Littérature anglaise moderne et littérature américaine
Language :
English
Title :
Mapping Out the ‘Time Zones’ of Diaspora in Bharati Mukherjee’s Desirable Daughters
Publication date :
February 2012
Main work title :
Border-Crossings: Narrative and Demarcation in Postcolonial Literatures and Media
Editor :
Makokha, J. K. S.
Wawrzinek, Jennifer
West-Pavlov, Russell
Publisher :
Winter, Heidelberg, Germany
ISBN/EAN :
3825358992
Pages :
133-141
Peer reviewed :
Peer reviewed
Available on ORBi :
since 29 March 2010

Statistics


Number of views
366 (22 by ULiège)
Number of downloads
1 (0 by ULiège)

Bibliography


Similar publications



Contact ORBi