The Concept of Re-Orientalism in The Namesake

Year 2019, Volume: 1 Issue: 2, 144 - 155, 31.12.2019

Cengiz Karagöz Hasan Boynukara

Abstract

This
paper attempts to offer an original insight into Jhumpa Lahiri’s
novel The
Namesake
by exploring it in the light of Re-Orientalism which has arisen out
of the outlooks of the South Asian writers. If Orientalism discussed
by Edward Said means that there are negative stereotypical images in
the Oriental nations and sharply determined lines between the West
and the Orient, Re-Orientalism points to the perception that the
diasporic South Asian writers seek to reflect backward, patriarchal
and negative stereotypes about the South Asian culture and
conventions in their literary texts. Lahiri’s work needs to be
analyzed through this perspective since she could be said to draw
upon patriarchal tendencies that place Indian women within the
frontiers of ignorance and minor status, Indian parents’ lack of
empathy for children’s desires and generation gap due to the
parents’ obsession with clinging to unnecessarily rigid rules of
Indian traditions. While the second generation Indian immigrants
display manners that symbolize the signs of the Western ideals such
as freedom of speech, gender equality and individual autonomy, their
parents as the first generation Indian immigrants in America
represent the backwardness, the fact of silencing women in the family
as well as the construction of insurmountable barriers between
themselves and modern thoughts.    

Keywords

Lahiri, Orientalism, Re-Orientalism, Patriarchy, Freedom, Generation, South Asian

References

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