Intersectional perspectives and youthful trauma

(Re)considering Gauri in Jhumpa Lahiri's The Lowland

Bibliographic Data

ID2179746
AuthorsR Roy (0000-0002-1175-5041)
Year2024
Volume60
Issue2
Pages244-259
Publication date2024-03-03
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessYes
TypeARTICLE
VenueJournal of Postcolonial Writing (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 1744-9855 • E-ISSN: 1744-9863
PublisherInforma UK Limited (PUBLISHER • GB)
DOI10.1080/17449855.2024.2307404
OpenAlexW4391969342
LanguageEN
References cited25

This article offers a new reading of Jhumpa Lahiri’s novel The Lowland (2013), focused on the protagonist Gauri, by challenging earlier critical accounts of her character. Using an intersectional analysis supported by insights from trauma studies, it scrutinizes the elements that shape Gauri as a woman, revolutionary, wife, mother, and migrant. It argues that her persona is best understood as a product of her multiple interactions with the world and their related discourses within The Lowland’s exploration of the impact of the Naxalite Movement (1967–72) on a conservative middle-class Bengali family and especially on Gauri’s development. Contending that existing readings of Lahiri’s narrative are constrained by gaps in intersectional understandings or misunderstandings of the impact of trauma caused by her engagement with the Movement, the article offers a reading of how Lahiri’s protagonist subverts heteronormative discourses in multiple contexts, voicing her trauma culturally through actions rather than words. © 2024 The Author(s). Published by Informa UK Limited, trading as Taylor & Francis Group

Aesthetics · Art · Sociology · Postcolonial and Cultural Literary Studies · Short Stories in Global Literature · South Asian Cinema and Culture · Gender Studies · History

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