Disjunctures and diaspora in Kiran Desai’s The Inheritance of Loss
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 9003750 |
|---|---|
| Authors | Oana Sabo (0000-0002-7409-5685, Tulane University, New Orleans, USA, corresponding author) |
| Year | 2012 |
| Volume | 47 |
| Issue | 3 |
| Pages | 375-392 |
| Publication date | 2012-08-14 |
| Open Access | Yes |
| Type | ARTICLE |
| Venue | The Journal of Commonwealth Literature (JOURNAL) |
| Journal identifiers | ISSN: 0021-9894 • E-ISSN: 1741-6442 |
| Publisher | SAGE Publishing (PUBLISHER • US) |
| DOI | 10.1177/0021989412450697 |
| OpenAlex | W2139195404 |
| Language | EN |
| Citations received | 5 |
| References cited | 27 |
In The Inheritance of Loss, Kiran Desai juxtaposes underprivileged diasporic subjects in India and the USA in both the colonial past and the global present, thereby challenging its readers to develop a larger perspective on historical and global power asymmetries and minority struggles for recognition. She uses a fragmentary structure that shifts across time and space to suggest that immigration and diaspora are predicated on a rift between home and host land. I argue that in her novel, diaspora represents both a socio-political formation and a narrative strategy that underscores socio-economic inequalities in the world and invites readers to think critically about immigration and global capitalism. In blending aesthetic and material concerns, Desai departs from theories of diaspora and cosmopolitanism that tend to privilege hybridity and mobility. By narrating the experiences of cross-ethnic diasporas in the context of global capitalism, Desai expands the generic boundaries of Indian diasporic writing in English
Aesthetics · Art · Capitalism · Colonialism · Context (archaeology · Cosmopolitanism · Diaspora · Hybridity · Immigration · Inheritance (genetic algorithm · Literature · Narrative · Political science · Politics · Privilege (computing · Race (biology · Racialization · Sociology · Anthropology · Diaspora, migration, transnational identity · Gender Studies · History · Law · Postcolonial and Cultural Literary Studies · South Asian Cinema and Culture
Contemporary Asian Literatures in English
Problematizing national/cultural affiliations in postcolonial literature
Collective suffering and the possibility of empathy in Karan Mahajan’s The Association of Small Bombs and Kiran Desai’s The Inheritance of Loss
Postcolonial feminism
(In)visible scripts, hidden costs
Routes
At home in the world
The black Atlantic
The Postcolonial Exotic
Postcolonial Writers in the Global Literary Marketplace
Imperial Eyes
Modernity at large
Cosmopolitanism
Globalization and Culture
Cosmopolitanisms
Globalization and Culture
Postcolonial Melancholia
Cosmopolitanism
Asian Diasporas
Colonial Discourse and Post-Colonial Theory
Cosmopolitanism
The diasporic imaginary
Introduction
Rethinking Diaspora (s)
On Cosmopolitanism and Forgiveness
A Critique of Postcolonial Reason
Culture and Imperialism
| Citations per year | 0.36 |
|---|---|
| Citation span | 2012 - 2026 (15) |
| Highly cited | No |