Lahiri's Hawthornian Roots: Art and Tradition in “Hema and Kaushik”

Abstract

Listen

Translate article

Hawthorne explores—in The House of Seven Gables and particularly The Marble Faun—how some artistic methods attempt to fix the past and escape tradition's grip while others participate in the reformation and revitalization of tradition. Lahiri draws on Hawthorne's ideas and characters as she probes—in “Hema and Kaushik” and especially its final story, “Going Ashore”—how one's relation to the past affects and even determines one's ability to live out a hybrid, postnational identity.