Distant Homes: Migrant Sensibilities and the Problems of Acculturation

Authors

  • Santosh Gupta

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.31436/asiatic.v11i1.961

Abstract

Continued waves of diasporic movement over successive historical moments in South Asia make it difficult to homogenise all diaspora into one mould. The present paper explores the conflict between the process of acculturation and the longing for homeland experienced by three South Asian poets who belong to a specific period in modern diaspora. Contemporaries all, Agha Shahid Ali (1949-2001), Meena Alexander (1951-) and Imtiaz Dharker (1954-) express in their poetry their (c)overt sense of longing and attachment to the homeland even as they negotiate the different interstitial spaces they occupy. Their reinvention of their identity in the process of acculturation and their expanding political concerns lead them to look beyond the nation as home and develop a form of cosmopolitanism. Does this cosmopolitanism give them an assurance, a sense of belonging or an uneasy discomfort? I intend to discuss some of these issues as expressed in their poetry.

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Author Biography

Santosh Gupta

 Santosh Gupta, formerly Professor of Literature in the Department of English, University of Rajasthan, Jaipur is an independent scholar. She was Chairperson of the Department and Dean, Faculty of Arts and Member of the Syndicate. She has published extensively on Postcolonial theory, Feminist writing and modern fiction. Amongst her books are Contemporary Indian Literature (2001), Rethinking Modernity (co-edited with Prafulla Kar et al., 2005), Literary Constructs of the Self: Socio-Cultural Contexts (co-edited with Mini Nanda, 2010) and Contemporary Women’s Writing in Canada (co-edited with Bandana Chakrabarty, 2016). Email: santoshjpr26@yahoo.in.  

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Published

2017-06-15

How to Cite

Gupta, S. (2017). Distant Homes: Migrant Sensibilities and the Problems of Acculturation. Asiatic: IIUM Journal of English Language and Literature, 11(1). https://doi.org/10.31436/asiatic.v11i1.961

Issue

Vol. 11 No. 1 (2017): June

Section

Section II: Articles and Interviews on South Asian Diaspora Literature

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