• Deanna Pereira J

It can be argued that, other than in some trading communities, migration of all sorts is due to varying degrees of political or economic necessities. It may be related to the inequalities created by capitalism, such as the demand for labour, the rise of poverty or famine and the basic demand for better social and economic conditions. This paper explores how dislocation and cultural displacement affect the minds of the diasporic characters in Jhumpa Lahiri’s collection of short stories The Interpreter of Maladies. Lahiri, in her collection of short stories, Interpreter of Maladies, has clearly brought out the mental crisis and sense of alienation felt by various immigrants from India. This paper analyses the following short stories from the collection and examines how Lahiri deals with the question of identity, alienation, assimilation, integration and the plight of those who are physically and psychologically displaced. The story of “When Mr. Pirzada Came to Dine” explores the mental crisis of Mr. Pirzada, a Pakistani Bengali who becomes alienated and finds it difficult to understand the festivals, customs and manners of Americans; ‘A Real Durwan’ is the story about Boori Ma, a sweeper who migrated to India from Pakistan, not for financial reasons but for political reason; and “Mrs. Sen’s” is a story of a Indian Bengali housewife, migrated to America with her husband, a university teacher. Displacement, whether forced or self-imposed, is in many ways a calamity for the immigrants. Using the ideologies of some of the Postcolonial thinkers like Bhabha, Kalra and Dufoix, this paper attempts to prove how diasporic writing makes it evident that despite peculiarities, there is an inherent exilic state in all dislocated lives, whether it be voluntary or involuntary migration. Growing up in America under the supervision of a mother who wanted to raise her children to be Indian, is no surprise when Jhumpa Lahiri puts so large an emphasis on the stories of Indians in what for them is a strange land.

Diasporic Writing, Displacement, Hibridity, Alienation, Migration

"Dislocation and cultural displacement in Interpreter of Maladies", International Journal of Emerging Technologies and Innovative Research (www.jetir.org), ISSN:2349-5162, Vol.6, Issue 3, page no.231-235, March-2019, Available :http://www.jetir.org/papers/JETIRAG06047.pdf

"Dislocation and cultural displacement in Interpreter of Maladies", International Journal of Emerging Technologies and Innovative Research (www.jetir.org | UGC and issn Approved), ISSN:2349-5162, Vol.6, Issue 3, page no. pp231-235, March-2019, Available at : http://www.jetir.org/papers/JETIRAG06047.pdf