Naming Jhumpa Lahiri : canons and controversies / edited by Lavina Dhingra and Floyd Cheung.

Format:

Book

Contributor:

Dhingra, Lavina, 1965-

Cheung, Floyd, 1969-

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Lahiri, Jhumpa--Criticism and interpretation.

Lahiri, Jhumpa.

Criticism and interpretation.

Physical Description:

xxii, 221 pages : illustrations ; 24 cm

Place of Publication:

Lanham, Md. : Lexington Books, [2012]

Summary:

Pulitzer Prize-winning author Jhumpa Lahiri is among the few contemporary writers read widely in the United States and globally by the general public, minority audiences, and academic scholars alike. While her works focus on specific ethnic experiences of highly educated, upper-middle-class professional Bengalis living in New England since the 1970s, they simultaneously address universal themes. With her meteoric success, questions have arisen regarding her naming: Is she a Bengali American writer? An Asian American writer? An Indian writer? An American writer? A postcolonial writer? Does this naming determine whether, how, and by whom Lahiri's texts are read and taught, and to which literary canons they belong? Why is Lahiri's writing so successful among multiple audiences, whether in Bengal, Boston, or beyond?

Naming Jhumpa Lahiri: Canons and Controversies addresses these and other questions and explains why naming matters, to whom it matters, and how paying attention to these questions can deepen our appreciation for the politics surrounding Lahiri's works and our understanding of the literary texts themselves. This collection marks a significant evolution of the field of Asian American studies, as it does not merely include scholars of South Asian descent writing about a South Asian writer in an ethnically confined context, but rather allows for intertextualities and conversations among scholars of varied ethnicities and fields, including postcolonial, popular culture, psychoanalytic, film, women's, American, and world literature studies. Book jacket.

Contents:

Part I The Ethnic, The Orientalist, And/Or The Universal?

Chapter 1 Mediating the Particular and the General: Ethnicity and Intertextuality in Jhumpa Lahiri's Oeuvre / Karen Cardozo, Five Colleges, Inc. Cardozo, Karen, Five Colleges, Inc. 1

Chapter 2 The Inheritance of Postcolonial Loss, Asian American Melancholia, and Strategies of Compensation in Jhumpa Lahiri's The Namesake / Floyd Cheung, Smith College Cheung, Floyd, Smith College, Lavina Dhingra, Bates College Dhingra, Lavina, Bates College 27

Chapter 3 What Lies Beneath: Lahiri's Brand of Desirable Difference in Unaccustomed Earth / Rajini Srikanth, University of Massachusetts, Boston Srikanth, Rajini, University of Massachusetts, Boston 51

Part II Consuming Diaspora: Audience And Imaginary/Intimate Communities

Chapter 4 Novel/Cinema/Photo: Intertextual Readings of The Namesake / Bakirathi Mani, Swarthmore College Mani, Bakirathi, Swarthmore College 75

Chapter 5 Affect, History, and the Ironies of Community and Solidarity in Jhumpa Lahiri's Interpreter of Maladies / Susan Muchshima Moynihan, State University of New York at Buffalo Moynihan, Susan Muchshima, State University of New York at Buffalo 97

Chapter 6 Intimate Awakening: Jhumpa Lahiri, Diasporic Loss, and the Responsibility of the Interpreter / Rani Neutill, Johns Hopkins University Neutill, Rani, Johns Hopkins University 117

Part III Gendered Ruptures And Familial Belongings

Chapter 7 Feminizing Men?: Moving Beyond Asian American Literary Gender Wars in Jhumpa Lahiri's Fiction / Lavina Dhingra, Bates College Dhingra, Lavina, Bates College 135

Chapter 8 Gendered (Be)Longing: First- and Second-Generation Migrants in the Works of Jhumpa Lahiri / Reshmi Dutt-Ballerstadt, Linfield College Dutt-Ballerstadt, Reshmi, Linfield College 157

Chapter 9 Re-Rooting Families: The Alter/Natal as the Central Dynamic of Jhumpa Lahiri's Unaccustomed Earth / Ambreen Hai, Smith College Hai, Ambreen, Smith College 181.

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references and index.

ISBN:

9780739169971

0739169971

9780739169988

073916998X

OCLC:

753632443