Deciphering the Unfamiliar: Generational Conflict and Cultural Transformation in the Novels of Jhumpa Lahiri

Abstract

This article aims to discuss the differences, traditions, and transformations described in Jhumpa Lahiri’s immigrant-themed writings, which are based on the author’s personal experience as an immigrant. The author examines immigrant identity, which is determined by the conflict between preserving traditions and adapting to the new environment. The problem posed in this article is how Jhumpa Lahiri describes the conflict between the need to preserve traditions and adapt to the conditions of the new environment in the stories and novels of immigrant families. An analysis of the text of Lahiri’s works will allow exploring how the author constructs the immigrant consciousness about tradition and change through various narrative techniques. For this purpose, the books The Namesake (2003), Interpreter of Maladies (1999), and Unaccustomed Earth (2008) will be examined. Moreover, this study will highlight such aspects of these books as transformation, differences between generations, and the redefinition of the concept of tradition. In addition, to understand the author’s immigrant consciousness, post-colonial and diaspora studies will be applied in the analysis of Lahiri’s writings. Consequently, this article demonstrates, based on the analysis of these books, that in the narratives about immigrant families, transformation is presented as a dialectical process in which the conflict between the two opposing forces of immigrant identity, namely, the desire to preserve traditions and adapt to the new environment, manifests. Consequently, by presenting such a concept of transformation, Lahiri problematizes this aspect of the immigrant experience and thereby emphasizes its specificity for each immigrant.

DOI: https://doi.org/10.54633/2333-025-059-020