Layered Temporalities – Between Modernism and Postmodernism – in Jhumpa Lahiri’s The Lowland Cover Image

Layered Temporalities – Between Modernism and Postmodernism – in Jhumpa Lahiri’s The Lowland
Layered Temporalities – Between Modernism and Postmodernism – in Jhumpa Lahiri’s The Lowland

Author(s): Adriana Elena Stoican
Subject(s): Social Sciences, Language and Literature Studies, Education, Foreign languages learning, Studies of Literature, Comparative Study of Literature, Higher Education , Philology, Translation Studies, Theory of Literature
Published by: Нов български университет
Keywords: Circular time; Egoism; Linear time; Modernity; (Post)modernism

Summary/Abstract: The discussion approaches Jhumpa Lahiri’s novel The Lowland, aiming to trace the author’s positioning in relation to modern and postmodern assumptions. The argument follows the main character’s (Gauri) transnational trajectory, as she crosses frontiers in a journey that also spans large temporal dimensions. Gauri’s unconventional choices are to be interpreted in relation with her permanent interest in the nature of time that is also a part of her doctoral research in philosophy. Gauri’s professional goals and her personal destiny appear strongly conditioned by the political context of her pre-emigration days, i.e. the Naxalite movement. All the above suggest that The Lowland can be read as a novel with an implied message about the grand narrative of history in relation to time perception and the possibility of (female) identity formation. Whether Lahiri’s approach to these themes echoes a predominantly (post)modern outlook is the focus of the present analysis.

  • Issue Year: 6/2020
  • Issue No: 2
  • Page Range: 249-264
  • Page Count: 16
  • Language: English