TRAUMATIC EFFECTS OF TRANSNATIONAL RELOCATION IN JHUMPA LAHIRI’S UNACCUSTOMED EARTH
TRAUMATIC EFFECTS OF TRANSNATIONAL RELOCATION IN JHUMPA LAHIRI’S UNACCUSTOMED EARTH

Summary/Abstract: The paper starts from the assumption that contemporary literature of migration presents new patterns of transnational mobility that influence family structures across national borders. While transnationalism is customarily understood as a transcendence of the diasporic condition, the present discussion aims to establish whether these two discourses of dislocation can be considered distinct or overlapping. By analyzing second generation South-Asian American characters engaged in repeated resettlements, the analysis focuses on the reconfiguration of family structures in the context of transnational migration. The characters under scrutiny are Amit and Kaushik, the children of well-off Bengali transmigrants from Jhumpa Lahiri’s collection of short stories, Unaccustomed Earth. These characters are affected by their parents’ decisions to repeatedly change their countries of residence. By examining the childhood and adulthood of Lahiri’s parachute kids, the paper signals the fact that intensified relocation does not always generate a beneficial state of fluidity and increased adaptability. Therefore, the evolution of these characters illustrates their peculiar structures of attachment that can be maintained in the context of accelerated family resettlement. By analyzing transnational mobility in recent literature of migration, the present study aims to establish the intersections and discontinuities between the diasporic and transnational discourses.

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