Diasporic Sensibility in Mistress of Spices by Chitra Banerjee

Abstract

Diaspora is a sort of displaced and dispossessed community or culture in different cultural setup. Various issues emanate from diaspora as ethnicity, migration, incompatibility and identity crisis etc. In recent times, a gaggle of Indian women writers have left their indelible mark on the sand of Diasporic Literature, some of the distinguished names are: Bharati Mukherjee, Kiran Desai, Meera Alexander, Jhumpa Lahiri, Geete Mehta, Suneeta Peres de Coasta and Chita Banerjee Divakaruni etc. These writers have enriched Diasporic literature with their invaluable versatile writings by portraying the immigrant experiences. Chitra Banerjee Divakaruni has cemented a secure place at the Parnassus of South Asian Diasporic literature. Deeply rooted in cultural ethos, Divakaruni’s novels weave around myth, magic, reality, cross cultural impact, customs, and identity crisis etc. The novel The Mistress of Spices (1997) presents diasporic sensibility exploring and identifying the various kinds of problems faced by immigrants. The people come from different countries born and brought up in different cultural background and lose sheen in the glamour of pell-mell of western civilisation craving for identity. The paper is a humble attempt to explore the diasporic sensibility and gauge the immigrant experiences felt by the writer and carried through the characters of the novel forward.