DIÁSPORA, TRADUÇÃO E IDENTIDADE: O ENTRE-LUGAR DOS SUJEITOS DIASPÓRICOS NA OBRA DE JHUMPA LAHIRI

Abstract

The literature of Jhumpa Lahiri, a writer of Indian origin, allows us to address issues experienced by diasporic subjects in contemporary migratory experiences. The production of plural and multicultural identities in the last 30 years has decentered the Western model of modernity. In this context, the aim is to ponder the configuration of the migrant's identity in two short stories from Lahiri's book "Interpreter of Maladies", with an analytical perspective that perceives culture involved in a constant tension between tradition and translation. In postmodernity, the new forms of identity are hybrid and shifting, and the closed and binary concept of diaspora gives way to a perspective focused on an intermediate point. Thus, the diasporic subject translates the norms of his new place while re-editing his traditions and questioning his belonging to a national community and is thus situated in a between place.  The methodology consists of reading and interpreting the short stories "When Mr. Pirzada come to dine" and "A Mrs. Sen", based on Stuart Hall's concepts of identity and translation. The analysis points to the different ways of situating belonging, between tradition and translation, in the postmodern diasporic context specifically among first and second-generation Indian migrants in the US.