Exploration of Identity and Cultural Hybridity in Mukherjee's Jasmine and Lahiri's Namesake; A Comparative Study

Abstract: This comparative study analyzes Bharti Mukherjee’s Jasmine and Jhumpa Lahiri’s The Namesake focusing on the themes of identity and cultural hybridity. It provides a deep understanding of the immigrants’ experiences and struggle as in cultural negotiation and identity formation in an alien land. In Jasmine, the journey of an Indian woman has been presented who reinvents herself and adopts different identities as she goes across different cultures, symbolizing the fabricate and fluid nature of identity. Lahiri’s The Namesake presents the generational conflict as the immigrants struggle for preserving their cultural heritage and to fit in the society of the host country. Using the framework of comparative study, this study examines that the both novels present the social and psychological challenges of intermingling faced by the protagonists, focusing on the negotiation between the traditional values and modernity.