Youth Voices and Diasporic Public Spheres: An Examination of Tanuja Desai Hidier's Born Confused

Abstract

Using Nancy Fraser's analyses of transnational public spheres, this essay argues that South Asian Americans engage multiple public spheres that are transnational and polycentric. Literary works by South Asian American authors demonstrate how such diasporic public spheres work to facilitate social change. Despite numerous articles and books that discuss South Asian American literature, there are very few critical works that explore young adult fiction for and by South Asians. This essay explores how Tanuja Desai Hidier's novel Born Confused (2002) participates in the public sphere. The essay argues that while the novel succeeds in identifying the concerns of immigrant youth, the plot trajectory focuses the action mostly on changes at the familial level, thus perhaps pointing to the limited impact of youth power within the public sphere. By locating change and debate mostly within familial structures, the novel also demonstrates the power differences between different public spheres and suggests that youth voices are still nascent in public debate