Looking For Home:the Evolution Of The Indian Immigrants' Identity In Lahiri's Novels

Jhumpa Lahiri,who has won a lot of literature prizes including Pulitzer Prize fo r Fiction,is a prominent Indian American writer in the modern days.She is described as “one of the twenty best authors below 40” by The New Yorker magazine.With calm observations and sophisticated descriptions,Jhumpa Lahiri's works present a real image of the Indian American by writing about topics of the Indian immigrants looking for home and identity in order to survive in a multicultural society;besides,she depicts the change of the Indian immigrants' identity in detail,showing the complexity of immigrant identity with rich and various character images.Based on “home theory”,“identity theory” and so on,this paper analyzes the Indian immigrant image and the topic of looking for home in Jhumpa Lahiri's works to discuss the change as well as the complexity of the Indian immigrant identity with a method of combining text analysis and theoretical interpretation.This paper is divided into three chapters.In the first chapter,on the basis of Amartya Sen's view of single identity,it analyzes the situation where the Indian immigrants either recognize a single culture in order to have a stable home or emerge themselves in “memory” and the feelings of “returning home”;or even they will choose to recognize different choices of American culture by keeping themselves away from Indian culture.The second chapter applies Stuart Hall's theories of “cultural identity and diaspora” and “hybridity” to discuss the forming of “a united home” and hybrid identity when there are risks and flexibilities of the Indian immigrants' single identity.Combining the “cosmopolitanism” theory and the “multiple identity” view,the third chapter discusses the possibility of the Indian immigrants' cultural identity developing from hybridity to diversification by analyzing the situation where the first-generation immigrants recognize their dual identities of being both an “Indian” and an “American citizen” together with the multiple choices of the second-generation immigrants.The focus of this paper is the issue of the change of the immigrant identity which has been rather ignored by researchers of Jhumpa Lahiri.This paper holds the view that Jhumpa Lahiri's works emphasize the different choices of identity made by immigrants of the two generations.The depiction of the change of the immigrant identity shows the authors' deep thought when she is exploring the immigrant identity issue through artistic images: the immigrants' home is inclusive and open while the immigrants' cultural identity is hybrid,diversified and changing.And therefore,a diversified,inclusive and open attitude is the appropriate way for immigrants to look for their home and identity.