AN ANALYSIS OF CULTURAL DISPARITY IN JHUMPA LAHIRI’S THE NAMESAKE

Abstract

The study aims to spotlight the cultural disparity in Jhumpa Lahiri’s The Namesake. The cultural disparity is the focal concept in literature. It concerns about culture, especially those who are adopting another culture and the problems that they face while embracing another culture. The issue of cultural disparity focuses on the problems of adopting a different culture. Jhumpa Lahiri is a trendy writer. Her famous work The Namesake is about the Bengali couple Ashoke Ganguli and Ashima Ganguli who settled in Massachusetts and how they lead their life in a foreign country. When Ashima starts her life in Massachusetts and she is always in the state of oscillation that whether to follow her Bengali culture or to adopt the foreign culture. So, this paper abbreviates the character of Ashima Ganguli under the issue of cultural disparity. The famous culture theorists are Michael Foucault, Antonio Gramsci, Richard Hoggart, Jurgen Habermas and Theodor Adorno whose theories were used in this study to substantiate the present study. Only a few articles have been published under the title of culture. This motivates the authors to conduct research in this area. The issue of cultural disparity is analyzed by using theories of culture in Lahiri’s The Namesake. The disparity of cultural issues of Lahiri’s The Namesake is discussed and compared with the finding of other studies. Finally, the contribution of cultural disparity of Jhumpa Lahiri’s The Namesake is highlighted in the present work through the character of Ashima Ganguli because of her oscillation state. Further, this study also paves the way to future researchers to analyse Jhumpa Lahiri’s The Namesake in the areas of migration, alienation, parental love, quest for identity, and so on.