The politics of loneliness: reimagining transnational identity in Divakaruni's <i>Oleander Girl</i>

This study reimagines loneliness as a socio-politically embedded and relational experience. It examines how gendered, class-based, and diasporic power dynamics shape loneliness in Chitra Banerjee Divakaruni's Oleander Girl, a diasporic novel selected for its focus on female subjectivity. Drawing on Foucault's notion of biopower, Sartre's theorization of existentialism, and Butler's conceptualization of precarity, the analysis reveals loneliness as both an existential struggle and a structural condition that reflects female protagonist Korobi Roy's negotiation of familial loss, patriarchal expectations, and transnational identity. Korobi's journey presents loneliness as both a constraint and a catalyst for resistance within diaspora literary studies.