The Oscillation Of Jasmine’s Identity: A Study Of Bharati Mukherjee’s Jasmine Based On Postcolonial Feminist Theory

Many people are interested in the minority literature, and Bharati Mukherjee, anIndian American writer, is often entitled as a woman writer who focuses on theDiaspora theme of the Indian women in America, especially in her novel Jasmine.This paper will mainly analyze the protagonist, Jasmine’s violent identitytransformation, who is an Indian illegal immigrant, with the post-colonial feminism astheory foundation. In the first chapter, the author gives an overview of the IndianAmerican literature, the novel Jasmine itself and Bharati Mukherjee in general. Alsothe review of what has been discussed by other critics about the novel is covered inthis chapter, in particular, whether Mukherjee, an Indian American writer stands bythe side of Indian or the white society and whether Jasmine is Americanized herself.In the second chapter, the original impetuses of Jasmine’s transformation are thefocuses. In other words, the gender and racial oppression Jasmine suffered are theimpetuses of her identity transformation, which makes it possible for her to live in theAmerican way. Jasmine in India was trapped in the traditional conventions tightly,even if she had the sense to revolt against the norms, but she did not have the abilityto make it real.In order to survive in the New World, Jasmine adopts different strategies andstep by step she becomes American, which will be talked in the third chapter. IfJasmine wants to be reborn in the New world, she has to kill who she was, which isregarded as the most effective way. In the end, Jasmine settles down after the oscillation but it is not the end of her movement.