Eighteenth International Conference on New Directions in the Humanities

Abstract

Writings on South Asian Diaspora have always been about the contestations and interactions of multiple identities that diasporic individuals carry in the host land and homeland. Navigating between two or more nations and cultures, diasporic communities negotiate multiple identities while interacting with the world and at home. South Asian writings on its diaspora are rich with ideas of homeland, nation, and nostalgia. The assimilation and accommodation of events- everyday or extraordinary- in these writings depict the experiences that shape the identities and lives of South Asian diasporic citizens. This paper seeks to understand how South Asian women writers deal with the ideas of nation, home, and belonging in their writings. Tracing few works of selected South Asian women writers, this study brings out the unique experiences of women in diasporic spaces- the gendered roles they play; the carriers of traditions and cultures of the homeland; etc. It is interesting to note how the writings of Monica Ali, Jhumpa Lahiri, Anita Desai and so on, deal with the themes of migration, accommodation, interactions, and struggles in the host land/s and homeland through the eyes and narratives of diasporic women. South Asia, being rich and varied, bring in multitudes of experiences and, more so, through the writings of the South Asian women writers.