Meaning is Deferred and Differs, Identity Shifts: Identity-Formations in Jhumpa Lahiri’s The Namesake

Year 2026, Issue: 5, 27 - 34, 26.01.2026

Mustafa Demirel

Abstract

Instead of a simple definition as “one’s ‘sameness’ in instances”, identity must be perceived as a much more complex notion, as an “always-lacking” structure that is shaped by both external (discursive practices) and internal (psychological processes) dynamics. Jhumpa Lahiri’s The Namesake is a novel in which the argued dynamics in identity-formation can be clearly observed, through the identity crisis experienced by its main character Gogol/Nikhil in particular. Throughout the novel, the notion of identity is never taken as static but as a notion which always shifts along with that of meaning. Thus, to observe identity-formations through discursive and psychological processes in The Namesake, this article analyses the novel especially by focussing on the life of its hero, from the prenatal period to the adulthood. While studying the notion of identity in the light of certain ideas from prominent critics, the article resolutely follows the journey of the hero as subject.

Keywords

identity , subject , meaning , language , the novel , Jhumpa Lahiri , The Namesake , Gogol

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