Transformative Integration of Identity and Place: A Feminist Reading of Jasmine by Bharati Mukherjee

The academic discourse attributed to feminist criticism is both rich and revealing. With each new feminist reading, it becomes clear that we need to continue the discussions relevant to our gender. In a feminist critical analysis of Bharati Mukherjee’s novel, Jasmine, there is much evidence of themes such as identity, naming and place. In this brilliant work of autobiographical fiction, or what many creative writers term as creative non-fiction, Mukherjee pulls the veil away from the face of her protagonist, Jasmine, and through the shifting identities of her character, we observe her as named by the men she becomes involved with throughout her quest for a true, single identity. Whether or not she finally attains this singular identity is vague, as the novel ends with her leaving to reassume one of the names given to her earlier in the journey....