An Analysis Of Homeland Consciousness In The Namesake From : The Perspective Of Homi Bhabha’ S The Third Space Theory

Born in London in 1967,Jhumpa Lahiri won the Pulitzer Prize for fiction in 2000 for her first short-story collection Interpreter of Maladies.As an Indian-American writer,she focuses more on Indian immigrants’ dislocation,belonging,identity and so on.Her debut novel,The Namesake,has been translated into several foreign languages and aroused much attention all over the world.The Namesake depicts the story of two generations of immigrants.Many scholars have paid much attention to immigrants’ diaspora,dislocation,identity and belonging...However,there are few researches about immigrants’ pursuits of homeland.In view of this,this thesis focuses on the homeland consciousness of two generations of immigrants,and aims to study the homeland consciousness of two generations in The Namesake within the framework of Bhabha’s the third space theory.The third space is“not a specific place,an invisible,ambivalent and hybrid area,in which the subversion of binary oppositions,the negotiation of cultural differences and the articulation of minority ethnic groups can be achieved”（Bhabha,53）.In fact,the establishment of the third space is the process of cultural communication,which Bhabha calls cultural translation.Mimicry,hybridity and cosmopolitanism are main features of the third space.Introduction,the main body,and conclusion make up this thesis.The main body consists of three chapters.The first chapter depicts two generations of immigrants’ pursuits of the different single homeland.The first part describes the situation that first-generation immigrates insist on their Indian homeland through insisting on Indian traditions,establishing Indian community,and traveling to Indian homeland.On the contrary,the second part is about the second generation of immigrants’ insistence on American homeland,including their insistence on American traditions,Gogol’s change of his name and their interracial love affairs.In this chapter,the binary oppositions between different choices of homelands are represented vividly.The second chapter studies the establishment of the hybrid homeland,which contains dilemmas of single homeland and the construction of the hybrid homeland.Two generations of immigrates face dilemmas of returning to Indian homeland and integrating into American homeland,so they begin to construct the hybrid homeland through cultural communication.In this chapter,the binary oppositions of different cultures are broken,and the consciousness of the hybrid homeland begins to be constructed.The third chapter is about the pursuit of the fluid homeland.In the final section of the novel,with the further development of globalization and cultural communication,both generations do not care so much of the fixed homeland.The concept of homeland seems not to be bound to some certain place or space,and everywhere can be their homelands.This change accompanies by the dissolution of the fixed meaning of homeland and the reconstruction of the modern homeland consciousness.The view of cosmopolitanism drives this tendency.The last part is conclusion.This part reviews the main contents of the whole thesis,and also summarizes the features of homeland consciousness in The Namesake,it shows the artistic charm of The Namesake and points out the practical meaning of this thesis.With the help of the third space theory,the homeland consciousness will be more diverse and innovative.Besides,people will become more open and inclusive to embrace one new homeland.At the same time,the limitation of this thesis is also pointed in this part.The analysis of the homeland consciousness in The Namesake in this thesis not only provides a new perspective for the study of The Namesake,but also arouses readers’ attention and thinking about cultural communication.