Published September 30, 2025 | Version v1
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Hybridity and Identity- Diasporic Voices in Jhumpa Lahiri's Short Stories

Authors/Creators

  • 1. Assistant Professor, Department of English Pragati Mahavidyadalaya, Sawkheda Tq. Sillod, Dist. Chatrapati Sambhajinagar, M.S.

Description

: This paper examines the thematic interplay of hybridity and identity in selected short
stories by Jhumpa Lahiri. Lahiri’s fiction, focused on the Indian diasporic experience in the
United States, explores how migration, cultural dislocation, intergenerational tensions, and
bilingual/bicultural existence shape subjectivity. Drawing on postcolonial theories of hybridity
and cultural identity (Bhabha, Hall), the study conducts close readings of five short stories to
analyse how Lahiri represents identity as negotiated, fractured, and performative. The paper
argues that Lahiri’s narratives offer nuanced portrayals of diasporic subjectivity: identity
emerges as static belonging and an ongoing negotiation between memory and adaptation,
tradition and modernity, private longing and public assimilation. The conclusion discusses the
ethical and emotional dimensions of diasporic belonging in Lahiri’s oeuvre and suggests
directions for future research into narrative form and language as sites of hybridity.

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Dates

Issued
2025-09-30
published

Software

Repository URL
https://cognitivethinking.in

References

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